You are walking down a road in a small town. On the left, one of the residents, is selling freshly cut sunflowers for $2.99 a bunch. You ask them if you can have a bunch for free, and they say no. You keep walking. A few blocks up ahead, you come across another resident who has put a bucket of cut sunflowers in front of the their yard, free for the taking.
Are the sunflowers "behind a paywall" in any functional sense? Does the fact that one possible place to get them requires payment mean anything when they are available at no cost elsewhere?
In my view the sunflowers are behind a paywall at that particular place on the left.
The functional sense seems very relative. For people who cannot go further, all sunflowers are behind a paywall. For people who can, it’s just that, i.e. they also have access to sunflowers not behind a paywall.
To be clear, I’d say the resident on the left (or Ardour for that matter) is in no way worse because they’re offering paid sunflowers. They have every right to do so. And something must be good about their offer if people are buying from them (location, authority, desire to support their business, perhaps all of the above).
Are the sunflowers "behind a paywall" in any functional sense? Does the fact that one possible place to get them requires payment mean anything when they are available at no cost elsewhere?