"Cost recovery" for a beta is having millions beta test it, not charging them for the privledge.
Wouldn't it make more sense to pay individuals $1.50 (or something) for each new bug found?
I understand the notion of wanting to recover bandwidth costs, but that is just hooey in the contexts of a beta test and Microsoft's available cash for bandwidth.
What is it Microsoft? Are we helping you find bugs or are you selling buggy software for really cheap?
I know the answer is "both" but it still seems screwy, imo.