I think this is an interesting case study. Any user who is invested in using a service feels a certain sense of ownership over that service - but paid users take this to a completely different level. Paying $25 a year (or $5 a year for that matter) changes the psychology of how users regard a service drastically.

It depends on the website, though: Flickr has always been known for the very 2.0-ishness of its communication with users — being human and fun and laid-back and all. Well, there’s a flip side to that coin, and you end up with a community of users who think they own the site.