The "free" reg this year and the "$10" fee next year in MA is the same as the cable company giving you free service for the first two months and adjusting the fees downstream.
MA will substantially increase their fees, you can bet your bottom dollar on that. This is currently a loss leader to get you in the door.
This entire registration thing is a farce. It will never be implemented correctly. Few will get the lic and out of the ones that do fewer still will properly report. Little useful info will be gathered and the few will pay the fees for the many. There is not enough policing of fisherman with lic's now...how are they going to enforce this? Most people I know are ignoring this entire lic thing. Utter waste of time and money IMO.
The only thing this does is kill is the single mom who walks in to the local tackle store on a hot summer day with a little kid who has been begging her to take him fishing... We have all seen this each and every summer.... I smile when do as I had the same fishing itch when I was a kid....she doesn't know a thing about fishing and walks in to a local shop with the idea she can pick up a couple cheap kid's combos for her and her the kid, some bait, and some free advice on where to take this kid so he can catch a scup or two and feel good about himself and life in general. The mom hears another $20-80 bucks for a sw lic and says frig this and takes him out for ice cream. This lic SUCKS IMO.
And this is all because the various fishery departments can't manage their way out of a paper bag. This lic will not be their savior.
In fact I believe it will cost society more in terms of social costs in the longer run...the good kid that wanted to go fish off the town pier with his mom will now be forced into seeking alternative social activities which as we all know have negative pitfalls... things that lead to drugs, crime and eventually prison. Let people fish for free, teach them about protecting the resource.