Taylor points outs a really interesting new piece by Dru Jay,
Enabling Goodwill on the Internet: Rethinking micropayments: "So why is it that no one has tried a voluntary, post-facto payment method? I think this is a pretty good question. Presently, we assume that no one would pay for decent content, unless it were mandatory, but let's assume, for a second, that they would." Hmm...