[mdig]

Behold, another stake in the heart of the open Internet.

First it was GDPR government fragmentation; then it was AI slop requests, and now it is greed. Before you know it, we'll be back to the days of having to research at libraries because they'll be the only ones with taxpayer funding to pay the x402 fees.

[wrqvrwvq]

Insane reflection. Nothing about the open internet has or will change because of a private, third-party payment framework making use of a http status code. Who is paying for bots like this? Every site needs to account for its costs. Just because you're too euro-poor to afford basic access to research doesn't mean others can't pay for it and benefit from it. Get a job.

Is europe just flooding online fora with doomer luddites to demoralize the US tech sector? Sounds far-fetched, but there is nothing organic about the recent rise in US/tech hatred across the web.