Goodbye, Nando

I first started reading The News & Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1994: it was one of the first newspapers -- arguably the first -- to "get the Web". It made what could have remained a local paper into a global player, illustrating (at the time) our high hopes for the online future. But in what may be another sign of the times, The Nando Times, like the New York Times and the LA Times etc, now requires free registration. That's fine for regular readers, but if I link to a story (Baseball cracks down on fan Web sites), you get a password request instead. Obviously I'm going to link to the same AP story at CNN/SI, the Baltimore Sun, or even the Kitchener Waterloo Record in Ontario, instead. Message: it is silly to protect content unless it is unique content.