Internet properties that mainly point to content (and there is a very long list of these) melt down pretty quickly when they put the underlying providers of content out of business (or throttle them to the point of bankruptcy).
But you don't have to think too hard to find other inequities that don't involve the Internet... Like the thousands of PBS affiliates in the 70's that relied on government funding to pay for content mostly originating from the BBC (also government funded). Today we have "hundreds" of cable channels most of which are devoid of any original material, and most local papers consist largely of "wire stories" augmented by regurgitated police blotters and high school sports results.
It's easy to see where we need to be with a 100 percent on-demand system, but it's hard to see how we get there with so many hands out expecting to be paid for somebody else's work.
Will the tyranny of the middleman never end?
Douglas Adams had it right in his extended story line where all such people were convinced that they needed to be sent on the first space-ship to found a new planet... I won't give away the rest of it, but it accurately portrays the predicament we perpetually find ourselves in.
Colonizing Mars, or the Moon, for God's sake anywhere fairly out of reach would certainly at least provide us with some short term relief.
Bon voyage Arianna!
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