Is free the future? Is the future free?
Malcolm Gladwell reviews Chris Anderson’s Free in TNY. As an author Gladwell is too eager to see connections where there are none (i.e. Nambobola na yata), but this review is solid.
. . .“Free†is essentially an extended elaboration of Stewart Brand’s famous declaration that “information wants to be free.†The digital age, Anderson argues, is exerting an inexorable downward pressure on the prices of all things “made of ideas.†Anderson does not consider this a passing trend. Rather, he seems to think of it as an iron law: “In the digital realm you can try to keep Free at bay with laws and locks, but eventually the force of economic gravity will win.†To musicians who believe that their music is being pirated, Anderson is blunt. They should stop complaining, and capitalize on the added exposure that piracy provides by making money through touring, merchandise sales, and “yes, the sale of some of [their] music to people who still want CDs or prefer to buy their music online”. . .