If publishers wanted Google to not index their data without paying for it, they'd already asked them not to index, robots.txt and what not? I find it more likel

If publishers wanted Google to not index their data without paying for it, they'd already asked them not to index, robots.txt and what not? I find it more likely that Google would come up with some sort of API that publishers can register, so that Google can get in (and 12ft can not)?