Comments on: The death of Free http://sarahditum.com/2009/07/01/the-death-of-free/ Freelance writer and journalist Thu, 17 May 2012 15:47:22 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: [Tribune] Book review: Free, by Chris Anderson « Paperhouse http://sarahditum.com/2009/07/01/the-death-of-free/#comment-1678 Wed, 30 Sep 2009 12:01:23 +0000 http://sarahditum.com/?p=1635#comment-1678 [...] 2009 September 30 tags: book review, business, Chris Anderson, Free! by Sarah Remember all that blogging about Free I was doing earlier this year? My review of Chris Anderson’s guide [...]

]]> By: Joel http://sarahditum.com/2009/07/01/the-death-of-free/#comment-1306 Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:37:18 +0000 http://sarahditum.com/?p=1635#comment-1306 Lovely post, Sarah – it’s like you’re actually making all the things I sort of vaguely think about into reasoned, coherent arguments, so that I don’t have to. Which is great, because I’m lazy.

If I was one of those professors who sell pre-made formulas for the grumpiest day of the year to the newspapers, I’d say that this is roughly the model that determines how much most people* will pay for something:

H x (D + L) x A = ?

Where H is How much you want it, D is Difficulty of getting it for free, L is Likelihood of being arrested for stealing it and A is the Availability of similar things for free elsewhere. You’ll note that it means people will nick anything: I’d say that’s borne out by the evidence.

*Not me, because I’m a law-abiding citizen.

]]> By: Bill http://sarahditum.com/2009/07/01/the-death-of-free/#comment-1305 Thu, 02 Jul 2009 01:33:42 +0000 http://sarahditum.com/?p=1635#comment-1305 You know, I am glad you brought up the music industry here. The band Radiohead released their most recent album on their own website and allowed people to pay whatever they wanted to pay for it, including not paying anything and simply downloading it for free. It was a choice. The band made more money than they ever had previously going through the record industry. This event is at least suggestive about so called “business models” in the coming technological internet era. Forcing people to pay, demanding people pay, seems less and less the way to go. Instead think about providing something people will feel loyal towards, something people will WANT to pay for whether they have to or not. The old economic models concerning basic human selfishness, however, aren’t equipped to take such models into account. There are some great interviews with top journalists about the future of journalism at http://www.ourblook.com/component/option,com_sectionex/Itemid,200076/id,8/view,category/#catid69 which I have found useful.

]]> By: Shannon http://sarahditum.com/2009/07/01/the-death-of-free/#comment-1304 Wed, 01 Jul 2009 21:29:44 +0000 http://sarahditum.com/?p=1635#comment-1304 Oh, there’s some good stuff going here locally at the moment…

http://www.blackheartcleveland.com/2009/06/30/connie-schultz-roundup-roundly-seen-as-epic-fail/

One of our local paper’s columnists (Connie Schultz) is married to a U.S. Senator, and has been involved in a flap whereby it had been proposed that the government should regulate who could use original reporting for what and how long… follow the links, it’s crazymaking stuff. So crazy I can’t even concentrate on how crazy it is right now without my head hurting.

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