If it's "worth paying for," they can just squeeze more money out of the equation until it's barely worth the cost. For a real world example, just look at the s

If it's "worth paying for," they can just squeeze more money out of the equation until it's barely worth the cost. For a real world example, just look at the scientific journal system - researchers pay upwards of $5k to publish (after spending however many tens to hundreds of thousands on the science, out of their own pocket), readers can pay $50 per article or their institution can subscribe for tens of thousands of dollars (if they're lucky and have a good negotiator). Journals do nothing of value aside from hosting the PDFs (which absolutely does not cost $50/download) and facilitating anonymous peer review (which amounts to sending emails to a few academics who will review it for free, at no cost to the journal). Even content that is worth paying for, like research, will quickly reach an equilibrium that maximizes profit while minimizing effort.