This may just be a matter of awkward wording but this item on The Comics Journal's fine weblog, ¡Journalista!, makes it sound like Doonesbury's move to Slate is why the formerly-free archives of the strip now cost money to access. I believe there are two separate business relationships here. Trudeau seems to have made a deal with UClick My Comics Page to add his library to their service. This is a subscription deal where you pay to have your favorite comic strips e-mailed to you or available for online browsing. That Trudeau has also made a deal to move what was formerly the rest of www.doonesbury.com over to Slate is, as I understand it, a whole 'nother deal. (I mention this because weblogs complaining about this seem to have read it as Microsoft now charging to read old Doonesbury strips online. I don't think Bill Gates gets a cut on that…except, of course, to the extent he gets a cut on everything any of us does involving a computer.)