&gt; If your websites serve ads then by definition your content isn&#x27;t free<p>It&#x27;s still free. You choose to access an API, whatever that may be. You don&#x27;t get to decide what the format is and you don&#x27;t get to decide what the content (the ads are content in the HTML) is.<p>&gt; The assumption that the only way for websites to make money is via ads or paywalls is completely pervasive and it&#x27;s simply not true.<p>You are lumping all websites together, which is unhelpful. A tumblr page vs Apple.com. How you measure profitable is not cut and dry. Google&#x27;s search isn&#x27;t profitable, but the reselling of data and injection of data side is. Just because you have an agenda, doesn&#x27;t mean the ecosystem matches your ideal wishes. The internet itself transmits VAST (pun!) amounts of data and ads are a small portion of that compared to say...video. 300 Hours of Video Uploaded to YouTube Every Minute. How much of that are ads? It&#x27;s about 2 hours. The internet is not expensive because of ads. They sit nicely on top of it, which is part of why they are tolerated.