> So now, because of bad actors, I need to pay for the privilege of watching a website or using a service that was meant to be free? No, thanks.

First of all - I suppose it should be very cheap. So, real humans will not pay much.

Second - why do u think that websites are meant to be free? They provide some service, so its a rather strange that the internet is so free (in both senses). I think, this freeiness is allowed to greatly speed up popularization. But for me is obvious that it can demand payment for service.

And third - service owner really meant it to be free, I don't see any problems with this in my idea. It can still provide free service.

I'm not saying websites can't demand payments for service, I'm just saying it's bad if it's a necessary fix for "scrapers are destroying the basic social contract of the web".