Bug Me; Bug Me Not. That is The Question.

If you find it annoying to be asked to give your personal information before you can read a news article, you're not alone. Now that many online publications are requiring that consumers register before reading, it shouldn't be surprising that some online consumers are developing applications to avoid that. The most controversial seems to be Australian thorn-in-the-side-of-big-media BugMeNot.com. This website lets consumers anonymously share active user names and passwords for more than 14588 forced-registration sites. Blogs are buzzing with comments, both pro and con, on the issue. 'BugMeNot.com was created as a mechanism to quickly bypass the login of websites that require compulsory registration and/or the collection of personal/demographic information (such as the New York Times),' its FAQ declares. NYTimes.com and LATimes.com are currently the two most popular sites at BugMeNot.com, whose servers are based in the U.S. There are murmurings of lawsuits. The real issue here should be "perceived value". Readers resent being asked to pause and fill in forms for ...what? So they can be served more ads they don't want to see? Instead of talking lawsuits, the offended websites should be talking about how they can create a value that is such that their readers want to give them personal information. But that would be listening to the consumer, now wouldn't it?