[awb]

That sounds like an argument against any bot visiting a monetized website.

Some people publish content freely on the Internet as a form of note taking, publicity, public discourse or for the betterment of like minded individuals, akin to why we’re here commenting on HN.

I guess I assume public content defaults into this “for the benefit of the world” category, where it’s up to the publisher to gate content as desired.

[keymon-o]

No, that's an argument against any bot visiting any website for the purpose of repackaging and redistributing information regardless of motivation website was concieved for.

Public content is still mostly published with a reference to a certain or anonymous individual/organization and gains visibility based on a value and an effort to be seen. Individual/organization is still motivated by visibility, popularity, acceptance and approval of that content.

We can summarize that people are motivated by a reaction. What do you think will happen when you remove or decrease reaction to knowledge/content providers?