The original argument for needing to charge for this data was made in the era of Xerox machines and faxes where you literally were paying someone to flip throug

The original argument for needing to charge for this data was made in the era of Xerox machines and faxes where you literally were paying someone to flip through a filing cabinet and make photocopies or run it through a fax machine. It's why we see like a crazy per page cost and other nonsense - those things make sense when you are literally printing a copy. But in the digital era? The price of duplicating a pdf or a textfile is a few processor cycles and a spot of ram. If you really need to charge for it, charge a few dollars a year as a flat subscription across all systems. Or alternatively, allow someone like the Internet Archive to make it available on their dime.