The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Everybody loves free stuff. On the Internet, people talk about two kinds of free. ÒFree as in beerÓ is the first saying, talking about how you can actually get something for free. ÒFree as in speechÓ is the other kind of free. This is the kind of freedom we are fortunate to have in Canada; the freedom to do something. Chris Andersen, editor of Wired magazine, is working on a new book called Free that just might rock everything we know about how the web is changing things. The music business is perfect place to begin. The music business is in trouble. When I was a kid, if I wanted new music, I walked down to the music store (yes, we had one in Snow Lake in those days. It was called Snow Sound and it was the greatest place on earth in my eyes) and looked though the collection they had. But really, it was pretty small. They might have had several thousand tapes and maybe a hundred I might have been interested in. Now, I can log on to LimeWire and find millions of songs to choose from. From the standard top 40 stuff to Norwegian death metal, if itÕs out there, I can find it and get it Ð for free. In some parts of the world, the number of illegal copies of any CD far outnumbers legal ones, and it is difficult to find an official copy. The music business has lost the battle. The same is true for many software companies. Why are we paying hundreds of dollars for Microsoft Windows and Office when for absolutely $0 I can simply download a copy of Linux Ubuntu and Open Office? It isnÕt because the Microsoft products are better; they arenÕt. We are simply used to them. But over time, our heads will catch up with our wallets and then where will that leave the people in Redmond? Books I can download by the hundreds, games I can play online for nothing, movies and TV shows are simple to find online. Basically, any content that can be produced can be digitized, pirated, and released online to the world. Content creators are in real trouble if they expect to lock their stuff down and not allow it to be shared. One person trying to keep their content available only to paying members of a club is no match against the thousands who want it for free. Numbers win. So what? Does this mean that everything should be free? Does this mean that there should be no laws protecting artists? Not by any stretch. But content creators need to understand that the world has changed and that the ways they make their money also needs to change. With over a billion people connected to the Internet, there are many ways to distribute your information and make a living producing some kind of content. In many parts of Asia, bands give away their music for free online. If you actually want a CD from the company that has special content on it (concert footage, etc.), you can buy it, but otherwise you can legally get the music for nothing. Bands make their money from concerts, merchandise, and other live appearances that canÕt be digitized and traded. Many authors are starting to give away their books online for free. Customers can still buy them from the store, but giving away copies builds an audience and lets people try out the books before buying. Research done by many publishers shows that if people try out a free book or two, they are more likely to buy real copies, gaining customers they never had before. People donÕt mind paying for things, but make them good, make them different. We will pay for things to come to us faster, in better qualities, in more channels, with more options, in new and different ways. These are the kinds of experiences that we will pay for. Otherwise, just make it free. ([email protected]) Tech Notes runs Mondays.
