It’s an interesting argument, but I don’t think users provide their content for altruistic purposes. Some do it to benefit from a sense of participating in com

It’s an interesting argument, but I don’t think users provide their content for altruistic purposes. Some do it to benefit from a sense of participating in community, some to build reputation and some to prove their expertise. In all cases, they get something from the site that’s hosting their content. So why should the site that’s hosting content not be allowed to have a business model that pays the bills? Given a choice between the following, which would you rather? * insidious adverts that compromise the impartiality of the platform (because thou shalt not offend the advertiser) * charging for API access, which affects a tiny proportion of users, and would not in any way prevent you accessing your own content (subject access and data portability is guaranteed by data protection law)