A few days ago, Jason Kaneshiro (aka Webomatica) had a post looking at how digital content is becoming a commodity (e.g. blog content, music, movies) that is regarded as having little or no value.
Jason contends free is wrong because it removes the incentive for people to create quality content, and that maybe we should pay for digital content once in awhile as opposed to continually taking it for nothing. His argument included this eye-catching paragraph:
“Call me crazy, but I’m increasingly willing to pay for digital content – music, movie rentals, and software, partly due to the aformentioned “convenience factor.” I recently did my taxes with a paid software download because that was quicker than getting in the car to buy the software from a store. I didn’t pirate the software since I felt the time saved doing my taxes with it, was worth paying for.”
After a few days of letting things rumble around in my head, I came to the conclusion that Jason’s absolutely right, and that things need to change because the everything-needs-to-free movement isn’t sustainable if we’re interested in having quality digital content produced for us to consume.
With this in mind, I did something radical today: I paid for something. Yup, I forked over $1 to Mincus.code for an updated version of its Adsense Notifier plugin for Firefox, which shows your Adsense earnings in your Firefox status bar. Now, a $1 isn’t a lot of money but it’s a $1 that Mincus.code hasn’t seen before even though I’ve been using Notifier for the past year or so.
So, why did I pay $1 rather than nothing? It came down the fact the Notifier has value to me. It’s a tool that works and it provides a “convenience” because I don’t have to log into Google Adsense. For 8 cents/month, that’s terrific value.
You know, it feels pretty good to pay for something as opposed to just taking it. It’s like going to a garage sale and paying 50 cents for a coffee mug when the person would have given it to you for nothing. Fifty cents gives the mug value.
Now that I’m feeling good about pay-to-play, I might even pay $1 for a new Wordpress contact plug-in I just installed. Hell, I’d even be willing to send Evan Williams over at Twitter a few of my Paypal dollars given he’s still looking for a business plan at a time when I’m feeling particularly generous.
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Radical Move: Paying for Digital Content
A few days ago, Jason Kaneshiro (aka Webomatica) had a post looking at how digital content is becoming a commodity (e.g. blog content, music, movies) that is regarded as having little or no value.
Jason contends free is wrong because it removes the incentive for people to create quality content, and that maybe we should pay for digital content once in awhile as opposed to continually taking it for nothing. His argument included this eye-catching paragraph:
“Call me crazy, but I’m increasingly willing to pay for digital content – music, movie rentals, and software, partly due to the aformentioned “convenience factor.” I recently did my taxes with a paid software download because that was quicker than getting in the car to buy the software from a store. I didn’t pirate the software since I felt the time saved doing my taxes with it, was worth paying for.”
After a few days of letting things rumble around in my head, I came to the conclusion that Jason’s absolutely right, and that things need to change because the everything-needs-to-free movement isn’t sustainable if we’re interested in having quality digital content produced for us to consume.
With this in mind, I did something radical today: I paid for something. Yup, I forked over $1 to Mincus.code for an updated version of its Adsense Notifier plugin for Firefox, which shows your Adsense earnings in your Firefox status bar. Now, a $1 isn’t a lot of money but it’s a $1 that Mincus.code hasn’t seen before even though I’ve been using Notifier for the past year or so.
So, why did I pay $1 rather than nothing? It came down the fact the Notifier has value to me. It’s a tool that works and it provides a “convenience” because I don’t have to log into Google Adsense. For 8 cents/month, that’s terrific value.
You know, it feels pretty good to pay for something as opposed to just taking it. It’s like going to a garage sale and paying 50 cents for a coffee mug when the person would have given it to you for nothing. Fifty cents gives the mug value.
Now that I’m feeling good about pay-to-play, I might even pay $1 for a new Wordpress contact plug-in I just installed. Hell, I’d even be willing to send Evan Williams over at Twitter a few of my Paypal dollars given he’s still looking for a business plan at a time when I’m feeling particularly generous.
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