It's Not Called 'Freebook'
What if I set up a service where you could archive photos, message friends, post your thoughts, organize groups, fan clubs, events and at the most basic level get in contact with friends and relatives, and gave you all that for free?
You and 400 million users would be on it (of course it would have to have great word of mouth and and be the lucky one to stand out from hundreds like it). And it's free.
Now consider this scenario. You are an artist, you post your work online to show it to possible clients. I want to take that art and drag it to my desktop and use it as a screen saver. Should I pay you? Would you want to be paid? Would you want to know that I dragged it to my hard drive? What is the value of your work? I have had my work appropriated with and without my permission, the ones I know of have credited me, the others just take. For instance one site Polyvore with allows you to gather tagged images and create a collage is a thorn in my side and in thousands of others. This is just oneexample of many on Polyvore that uses my work without permission.
I have noticed that a few friends have joined various groups on Facebookprotesting a fee charge. If they looked into the facts, they would see that it is a fee for purchases that you might make on the site. One such group "Join, if you dont want to pay $3.99/ month for Facebook!" has been outed as a scam. Like all internet rumors, it is best to get the facts before jumping on a bandwagon that is about to go over a cliff (and that questions your credibility as someone who can be trusted to post legit links). One site All Facebook takes this meme/rumor to task and outs the scammers.
From All Facebook:
"Just two weeks ago we wrote that Facebook will not charge users, however millions of users continue to be deceived. One Facebook group, "300,000 MEMBERS NEEDED TO STOP FACEBOOK FROM CHARGING £/$14.99 A MONTH", has successfully attracted over 474,000 users. Another group claims Facebook will begin charging on July 1st, but it's a flat out lie used as a way to drive thousands of users to the group."
Now to why I think Facebook should charge.
The generation born since 1980 has had access to the internet that is easy and cheap, they were raised on the concept of free; websites, music, video and applications. Why pay for it when it's free? But what does this do to work we see as valuable? Will they pay for art? For a book that you spent a decade writing? Music? Your film? What gives value? If it comes to the point where they expect all services for free, than why offer it? This argument goes back to Napster and the music industry, which has gone into a new paradigm and is still struggling to find it's footing. We need to give value to services, if we don't we will be rethinking why we create anything of value.
I have no qualms about paying for online services, because then they become accountable to me, and because I pay for value. If I don't value other people's work, then why should they value mine?
Image: Ophelia Chong / WHY?