"Here is one for free for you, enjoy!"

If somebody gives you something for free, they will have a reason for it. Promotional give aways, ranging from stupid pens that always leak into your pockets to product samples and vouchers. They are a nice way for companies to get in touch with their clients and people like it, too. So, actually there is nothing bad about it, it just ain't free. Of course, you get it without paying for it, but the company counts at a certain percentage of people to like the product so much, they will come back and purchase it. You know, that products have to be bought to give people money to live on, right? A company producing money will only be kept running when it gives a little return that is higher than the amount of money spent to keep it running. And that included worker's wages, supplies, electrictiy, whatever, and also the costs for giving away promotional give aways. So, everybody buying the product for a regular price, pays for the pieces given away "for free". But that is also okay, people get paid their wages (you might want to discuss the level of income, but that is a different topic), investors get some money, people get products.

"Read it, my kid, it is for free!"

Ever since Schibsted introduced the first free newspaper to a market -"Metro" in Sweden - the concept of a daily newspaper without a copy price has been all the rage throughout publishers in the world. But giving away media for free is not a new idea at all. Free newspapers are interesting because they have a more complex structure as described above products. A publisher produces a newspaper and gives it away for free. Therefore a lot of people read it. Which enables the publisher to sell advertising space to companies. The companies buy them because they want part of your mind, ie. you to remember their products, messages and services and then to purchase them. Like any other newspaper as well, but without the copy price. Nothing wrong about it again (except for the quality of the content maybe, but that is yet another different topic), people at the company and the publishing houses earn wages, you get something to read and pay with your time of attention, that you have to spare, obviously. Still find it somehow wrong? Well, consider that practically all online punkzines from pitchfork.com to punkrock.org work this way. Online advertising dollar pays for webspace, bandwidth, the editor's laptop and writers writing. Anything that is not a hobby, somebody has to pay for it.

"This is the internet, everything is for free!"

Everything is fine, you say, people get paid for their work, time, minds, efforts, whatever and other people enjoy, so nothing wrong here, right? Wrong. Some parts of the internet work way differently, and to show what I mean I want to take on one of the most lauded web applications of the last years: Wikipedia. Now, Wikipedia is for free, meaning that you may access it anywhere and anytime, but its content is produced by people doing it without getting paid. Hundreds of thousands of people worldwide spend their time, knowledge and effort to feed this encyclopedia and get nothing in return but the feeling of being part of something bigger. But nobody earns anything from Wikipedia, right? Wrong again. Wikipedia itself is a non-profit foundation, but its founder Jimmy Wales is the owner of a company that offers related software and consulting and this company is strictly profit-oriented.

 Moreover he gets paid for the press interviews, speeches and discussions he takes part in. He answers a lot of questions, but he is quite discreet about his prices and how much he earned last year. The same is true for MySpace and Facebook and whatever the latest fad might be. All made somebody rich by joining the work of millions of people to the benefit of a single person, who sold the community for a few hundred million dollars to either Microsoft, Apple or Google. The latter three companies all have been accussed of being rich capitalist exploiters here or there regularly, but all of them at least pay their workers. Unlike Wikipedia, who does not pay anybody - except for Jimmy Wales and the management team in a by-way fashion.

Summing up, remember: don't believe what anybody tells you, nothing is for free, never. Not even the Beatles were right when they sang "The best things in live a free, but baby that's not true for me, I want money!" - because as you have seen nothing is for free.