I don't see why you find it so incredible that the Arabian horse registry
would expect compensation for on-line access. If you access PaperChase or
Grateful Med to do human medical research, you are charged, yet you could
accomplish the same thing by visiting a medical library and utilizing the
Index Medicus. Human genealogy is very costly, particularly when you start
requesting copies of birth/death/marriage certificates, etc. Someone has to
absorb the cost of providing these materials. Building a computerized
database, such as a stud book, is very costly and labor intensive, and it
costs money to maintain it.
When the Arabian stud book went on line, they were using the computer
systems available at that time. To re-write the program will incur still
more costs. The stud books you are using at your school cost someone; don't
think for an instant they were free, and it is probably the taxpayer who
bought them if you are attending a state school.
It is a known fact that the Internet is not secure and the Arabian horse
registry is exhibiting good sense by not allowing access via it. It is
pathetically easy for a hacker to upload a virus that can destroy your
operating system and database.
It costs money to use the Internet, in case you haven't noticed, unless you
are a student at a state university, in which case someone's tax dollars are
paying for it. Why should the registries be any different? An on-line
service is still an on-line service, whether it is the Internet, CompuServe
or the Arabian Horse Registry.