I remember a similar discussion on the WBC thread a couple of...

I remember a similar discussion on the WBC thread a couple of years ago. Someone complaining that they weren't able to get a paper version without printing it out.

Personally, I accept but don't agree with the mindset of 'it's always (traditionally) been done this way, so why change?' that you suggest. There are a number of reasons to change a business practice - electronic communication is much more environmentally friendly, for one. Imposing a cost on delivering an environmentally-unfriendly option is an effective way to encourage people to move away from that option. If the user chooses to remain with that option, then they bear the cost of doing so.
As for being refunded the cost of visiting a web site - who asked you to visit? How much effort would be required for a business (or a Government department) to work out the infinitesimal costs for each site (or page!) visit to their website, track down each user, locate their bank account and deposit the fractions of a cent? This sort of requirement would be crippling to most businesses, to say nothing of the invasion of privacy concerns it would open up. But that's just the practicalities - in a non-electric (ie 'real world') analogy, it's like walking past a shopfront and reading the menu, or a flyer, or a book. Why should the shop reimburse you for any costs associated with getting to their shopfront?
And, if they did, do you think that these costs would not be passed on to the customer/shareholder in some way? Marginally increased prices, or marginally reduced dividends, etc.

I appreciate that moving away from a paper-based society doesn't suit everyone, particularly those who operated for a long time in a paper world. I can even sympathise with the objection to paying a cost for a paper copy to be sent out when in the past the receiver payed nothing up-front (again, cost borne by the business and passed on invisibly to the consumer). But suggesting any and all costs of interacting with the business should be paid for by the business is highly impractical, and illogical when in most cases it is the consumer/shareholder who initiates the contact.

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