You know Richard Stallman’s “Free as in speech, not free as in beer”? I think we could stand to add one more: Free as in peanuts.

If you’re in a bar, speaking freely and paying for beer, the bartender sometimes will put out a dish of peanuts for free. I know that I’m capable of eating an entire bowlful and then eying the bartender waifishly until s/he refills it. But, I generally won’t buy peanuts in a bar, even if they’re reasonably priced. I get value from eating them, yet I won’t pay for them.

I’m sure economists have a word for this—probably something like “You cheap bastard”—but I’m going to make up my own anyway: freechasing, pronounced like “purchasing.” It means taking for free items you value but that you wouldn’t have paid for.

Freechasing is only interesting when it’s applied to goods that—unlike peanuts—are not diminished by being consumed. A while ago a teacher told me that she didn’t use a chapter of my book Small Pieces Loosely Joined because she didn’t want to ask her students to buy the entire volume. She should have instead freechased the chapter by printing up some copyright-bustin’ copies. Since she wasn’t going to buy the book, she wouldn’t have been depriving me or my publisher of any money. And freechasing the chapters would have created some value: She obviously thought it would have some salutary effect on the students (presumably as they sharpened their logical skills by ripping it to shreds), and it’d be in my long term interest to have students introduced to my writing.

Likewise, I’ve freechased some music that’s enriched my life and has introduced me to artists I’ve since bought music from. I bet you have, too. (Question: Is listening to the radio freechasing music? How about if you turn it down during the ads?)

Freechasing by definition does no harm and creates value. But, it’s sometimes awfully hard to tell if you’re freechasing or if you’re not. It’s so easy to freechase that early Dylan album that maybe I’m just telling myself that I wouldn’t have purchased it. And if they drop the Dylan album’s price far enough, maybe I would have purchased it if I hadn’t already freechased it. Counterfactual life is tough to figure.

Anyway, this idea isn’t new and the neologism is ugly. But it’s Sunday.

[Tags: filesharing free]

Categories: Uncategorized dw