It's actually really easy to get an OpenID if you don't already belong to a website that uses it: you can use a Google or Yahoo account, either of which is easily obtained. There's also no money required and a lot more functionality than the proposed cookie-based reading page (which doesn't do a potential user any good if they're creating the trial reading page on a computer that isn't theirs or if they simply don't accept/keep cookies), which makes this a little redundant.