I just received an e-mail...

...from Lincoln, the automaker -- of all people -- offering me a free subscription to the New York Times online. Forgetting for a minute how bizarre that is (a luxury car company contacting me for a subscription to a newspaper), it gives me an opening to talk about the Times's new -- and misguided -- paywall.

First of all, I'm a subscriber to the print edition (and always will be), so I get unlimited access to the Times's Web site anyway.

Secondly, I would gladly pay for it if I had to. (Well, not gladly, but you get the idea.) The Times is truly the "paper of record" and I can't imagine living without it.

(I did have a bit of scare last week when I thought the Washington Post had gone to a paywall as well. That would mean I'd have to start paying to read Ezra Klein's and Chris Cillizza's blogs. Fortunately, it was a false alarm. Phew!)

So I really don't have a dog in this fight.

But the problem with the Times's paywall isn't just that it's so complicated, it's that there are so many ways around it. You're allowed a set number of free articles a month, can get free views from links to blogs, twitter, etc., and on and on and on. And, then -- just when you least expect it -- somebody like Lincoln comes along and offers you a free subscription.

The bottom line is: you never really have to pay for it.

And that's unfortunate, because people should have to pay for content. But they don't -- at least not in this new Digital Age.

So I give the Times about a year or so to figure this out, but don't expect the paywall to last.

As Jack Germond once put it, "You can't put the toothpaste back in the tube."