It’s hard. I don’t know how to resolve the conflict between Information wants to be free and Writers deserve to be paid . But it’s worth noting that the internet of yesteryear, where almost every article was free to read, was also the internet that drastically reduced the value of highly researched, carefully argued writing. That internet helped... See more

As Stewart Brand pointed out, in what would soon become a famous formulation, information-based products embodied an economic paradox. "On the one hand," he said, "information wants to be expensive, because it's so valuable. The right information in the right place just changes your life. On the other hand, information wants to be free, because the

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Information wants to be free, but it also wants to be expensive. In an ideal ecosystem, audiences would enjoy the universal accessibility of media, and creators would enjoy more pricing power and stable returns on media which appreciates in value.