If there were a way

... and there isn't. I have written before about intellectual property and why it's a completely fictional concept and hopelessly broken in the Information Age. The same core principle is at work here.

Information is not matter, nor is it energy, and therefore the same physical laws do not and cannot apply. There is no way to "count" the instances of a particular piece of information as it is disseminated, nor is there a way to stop an observer from creating a copy of the data, or force its destruction on consumption by one individual (yes, I'm talking to you, Snapchat). If these things were found to be possible, I would imagine the content distributors of the world would all rejoice at their sudden capability to deprive the poor of entertainment.

People love to be lied to, though. Pay attention to the fuel gauge on your car. It stays full much longer than it's supposed to, and E never really means empty; not even when the light comes on. We have the technology to fix that now but people don't want it. Nobody wants to fill up their tank only to see it start to burn up so soon. Everyone knows that you've got at least another 30 minutes of driving when the tank is empty.

The problem with the view counters as @kryptik noted was that they were making people unnecessarily discouraged. I'm fine with the occasional little white lie if it makes people happy, but I think the view counters we had were actually scaring people away, and that's not okay.