> Advertising (as everyone reading these words knows well) pays for the ability for nearly anyone around the world to type in any URL and have content of unimaginable variety appear on a screen. Advertising also subsidizes the cost of apps, which can take hundreds of thousands of dollars to produce, but are often free or low-priced.

I find this a bit of a weird premise. Advertising can pay only for so much (at most a few cents per view). What if content owners want to be paid a little more? Should they suddenly change their complete income model? The answer should be: of course not! But currently the answer is: yes. In my view we should get rid of this strange incontinuity and get rid of ads altogether. Yes, it may mean we will pay for content, but at least it will give us privacy, a healthy market, no annoying ads, customer rights, and most of all, it may improve the quality of content. Also, don't forget that free content will also happily coexist with this model.