https://venturebeat.com/2018/01/14/facebook-punks-partners-again-how-publishers-can-fight-back/ talks about Europe's royalty model for publishing, wherein writers/journalists get paid when their material is posted on social media (i.e., when a social network makes ad money by linking to the content), the same way musicians/labels get paid every time their pieces are played on the radio.

It sounds great.

Then I remembered Steve Yegge's epic post deconstructing how devilishly complicated the details of complex things like this can get: https://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2009/04/have-you-ever-legalized-marijuana.html

@22 our experience with marijuana legalization sounds like a useful counterexample to his argument, though. Legalization is indeed complicated. If you tried to figure out every single detail prior to implementation, it wouldn't have happened anywhere in the US. Instead, states have made high-level (VP-level, say) decisions based on evidence and legal drafting, and assigned regulatory authorities to work out details prior to legalization, and adjustments are made afterwards over time.

@npd You're absolutely right, marijuana has been legalized! But remember that Yegge did *not* say Hard Shit is impossible, on the contrary he says, “Astonishingly, we actually managed to launch at least half those crazy ideas, by burning through people like little tea lights”. But yes he did (over-)emphasize the obstacles to realizing Hard Shit and under-emphasized the slim possibility. I said so in a followup to my own post, and I certainly hope the European publisher royalty system gets built!