You make many good points, but you're skimming over the key aspect: people who don't make nor invest in content are selling ads on top of said content and they

You make many good points, but you're skimming over the key aspect: people who don't make nor invest in content are selling ads on top of said content and they really don't want to share any of the revenue. It's as simple as that. BTW, tort and common law copyright means that until we decide to get rid of our entire legal system, people are still going to be successful when they sue for damages, so these issues aren't going anywhere. The silly thing is there is no reason why aggregators, authors and publishers can't just realign their incentives and develop financial structures that work for everyone. We've been here before!