[wp-hackers] Subscription to user level

[R.J. Kaplan]

OK, this is a bit complicated, and I want a bit help in general ideas  
of how to accomplish this:
I need to set up a section of  of a site that will only be available  
to subscribed users (via paypal or similar) I was thinking about user  
levels, but they're not so flexible anymore (i'd want to give the  
user the a separate level so he/she can read articles in a restricted  
area, but not write articles) also, how would I handle the  
subscription part, how would I write a script that will update the  
user level, through some wordpress interface? write directly to the db?
Any direction and help would be appreciated.
Joe