Free content as bait

Seeder and filesharing, BitTorrent and streaming make it possible. Music and films can be loaded onto the external hard drive at any time conveniently. Sometimes even for free. Can this be fair play?

 

The evil scenario

Illegal videos, illegal downloads - is it theft or a pardonable offence? Or maybe even the killing effect for the creative digital economy? The well-known film producer David Heyman (e.g. Harry Potter) reminds us of this case. If everything will be available through free download channels on the Internet and no one makes any money, no content, book or film will be produced any more in the near future. "Free video? Great! – If monetization is possible.”

 

The intelligent solution

How to get out of this dilemma? Under which circumstances can there be good quality for free yet legal on the web? When will people pay for good contents?  Martin Fröhlich, managing director of Paper C: "You shouldn't force users to buy something - they must want it." Could this all be a question of marketing then?

At Ubisoft's ubiworkshop, you have the opportunity to read a part of the Wednesday Webcomic for free. If you cannot wait for the subsequent content, you buy it.

 

At Paper C, you can read scientific books as ebook online. At no charge at the moment. You only pay for what you download. And you pay for each page, chapter or the entire book. 

 

 

Text: Boris Alexander Knop