Chris Anderson's Free Sparks Debate

The Value of Information in a Digital World

Colin Campbell's article Is the Web's 'Free' Ride Over? (MacLean's 09/07/21), does not really review Chris Anderson's latest, aptly titled book Free; rather, it describes the controversy surrounding the book's release.

Anderson claims the future of the Internet will be in the universal exchange of knowledge where there is no direct cost to the consumer.

What Does Free Information Really Cost?

The ease and low cost of copying and transmitting information electronically has, ironically, the effect of making the information worthless, at least in terms of the open market. There are many objections to this assertion, especially from those who still rely on print media.

Of course, money at some point eventually does change hands, usually after the online surfer has followed the links, encountered an attractive call to action on a Website, and entered their credit card numbers. Nevertheless, for all practical purposes, the public domain is indeed becoming one giant free for all.

Andrew Potter's When Free Becomes Really Expensive extrapolates from Anderson's thesis and reminds people that, "In the age of digital culture, it is not just access to art that has been democratized, but its production as well." (Maclean's 09/07/13)

Democratization is generally a good thing and a cut-and-paste world is certainly conducive to free speech; it is also, Potter says, attributing the idea to cultural theorist Walter Benjamin, a democratic dead end: with mass reproduction art looses all authenticity and uniqueness, resulting in mediocrity instead of excellence.

Internet Copyright Law Questionable and Unenforceable

U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Richard Posner, Campbell says, tries to defend intellectual property by arguing that copyright law, "Should be expanded so that people can't link to stories," without permission, a rather strange idea given that the Internet is all about getting traffic.

If you want to retain your private rights to your material, the Web is the last place to go. Printed text, once the great bastion of semi-private thoughts, ends up being digitized in today's world not always with strict attention to enforcing copyright and intellectual property rights. Then there is the problem of the paraphrase, a concept that is extraordinarily hard to define and even harder to legislate against.

Back to Basics with Intellectual Property

Jacques Ellul, in The Technological Society, makes a philosophical example of a farmer who, prior to the Industrial Revolution and the era of specialization, needed a plow. So he designs, builds and uses one, ultimately creating an artifact that is highly personal to himself.

After this point in history, however, art, science and culture changed to create a society in which most couldn't afford the time or effort to handcraft the things they needed to use or wanted to enjoy on a daily basis. But perhaps it is not too late, as Potter puts it, to return to "forms of artistic experiences that by their nature can't be digitized."