I'm too late to edit my post above: It's a little surprising that on Hacker News, people assume "free" means free-as-in-beer and not free-as-in-speech, especia

I'm too late to edit my post above: It's a little surprising that on Hacker News, people assume "free" means free-as-in-beer and not free-as-in-speech, especially when I cited the latter earlier in my post. Also, it's sad that, on a forum dedicated to disruptive innovation, the responses are not creative ideas but people saying it's impossible. Just off the top of my head: Micropayments through a clearinghouse. Grants for artists. Some sort of minimum income support. Also: Many great artists in history earned barely a dime from their work. I know many people here build startups hoping to make a billion, but not everyone is driven by that. I'm not saying artists should starve, I'm saying monetizing isn't always necessary. Finally, not everyone must be paid what their work product is worth. Second-string basketball players make more than doctors, generals, US Attorneys, and diplomats. Was Albert Einstein paid what the Theory of Relativity is worth?