Information Wants to Be Expensive

Newsweek will be out of print after all these 80 years.

Reader Digest is getting thinner and thinner, both physically and content-wise.

French and Brazilian newspapers want some monetary compensation from Google and other search engines.

John Gapper, in a recent Financial Times article, predicted more and more toll fees to sprout on the Information Superhighway. He cited metered pay walls on news sites like New York Times, Financial Times and even on some blogs.

Most insightfully, Gapper pointed out what we have been missing all along.

1. Most of us have been seeing this quote all over the web and in print too: "Information wants to be free..." We don't check out the source, just take it at face value as valid, and demand that all content creators and owners give up their rights and let us enjoy their stuffs for free. Why does the information want to be free? ".. because the cost of getting it out is getting lower."
   
   Yes, distribution costs are coming down, almost free, YouTube, Pinterest, Flickr, Blogger, Wordpress, what else. But what about the creation cost? Can we make another Titanic or Avatar for less than 50 million?
2. Gapper then pointed us to that infamous quote's corollary maxim to the opposite effect : "information wants to be expensive because it's so valuable. The right information in the right place just changes you life."

I don't believe good codes (software programs) can be free everywhere and for all the time.

I don't believe good teaching, good lessons can be free everywhere and for all the time. Some one who can invent a business model that rewards teachers well, will carry all of the field  in online learning.