This is, in practice, true which has led to the other complaint common on tech forums (including HN) about paywalls. As the WSJ and NYT will tell you: if you request some URL, they can respond over the wire with what they want. Paywalls are the future. In some sense, I am grateful I was born in the era of free Internet. In my childhood, without a credit card I was able to access the Internet in its full form. But today's kids will have to use social media on apps because the websites will paywall their stuff against user agents that don't give them revenue.