content: The ability to rapidly copy information has changed the fiscal value of the information. The only way today the big shots see to make their information valuable today is to place it in a walled garden where names will be collected and admission charged. Or, sell it in a self-aware lock box that will vacuum the information back from you; it might also destroy it agains  7070  t your will someday.  Big corporate's reasoning is sound, but their execution and honesty is not.  They aren't comfortable serving information they can't have retain control over, not just because someone could duplicate it and republished it for free, but because the internet now grants the ability to source as a singularity instead being a physical distribution network. Already, the costs have drastically decreased eliminating physical medium,but being a singularity, this now grants the power to be the source information for today, but also days past. As if it was just as planned, it made old information as valuable as new information. Lets say Dennis's paid for a subscription for a year for $216. Dennis's subscription was allowed to expire. Dennis's kid has a report due, and needs an article to cite from 6 months ago. In the physical world, Dennis would still have the option to keep the copies, so Dennis is able to give his kid the right paper right away, with no strings attached, and no cost. In today's virtual world, Dennis would have to pony up about $5 for a single week subscription to view the archive, giving his kid a weeks window to view and copy the information he or she needs.  Dennis has spent one tenth extra to review old information that he already seen. This also has one additional effect, the advertising is current and modern. All the money spent on publishing the content then, doesn't need apply. Dennis's kid now has to the view the trailer for the sure-to-be-awful video game announced last week for 30 seconds. Effectively distracting Dennis's kid from the task of viewing old news from 6 months ago.    Effectively, Dennis just paid ~66% extra of the yearly-weekly's cost for a week's viewing, to allow a current million dollar advertising campaign reach his kid, over an old article. TL:DR Time value of information isn't allowed to apply to the Internet.