The Price of Free

CEBU, Philippines - Freebies. I love freebies because, yeah, I don’t have to ask for any of my parents’ hard-earned dough to enjoy some of life’s simple joys like a free tube of lipstick that’s still new in the market and is out on a trial run. Gosh, I think I’m addicted to freebies, no joke about that. I go to the Krispy Kreme Factory at Bonifacio High Street to get my chance of free glazed donuts and yeah, there’s something about free donuts that makes it taste a notch yummier than when you have to shell out some cash just to get your fill.

And then there’s free music, and free movies, and free ebooks which make them really more enjoyable because they are free—because we don’t have to wait for Christmas or our birthdays just to enjoy the latest tunes that are out on the market. Really, so many young people today (okay, don’t deny it, sweety, you’re guilty too) are addicted with all things free.

Blame it on the fact that when you’re young and when you aren’t earning big bucks, you’ll just have to be resourceful enough to actually get your plateful of downloads considering that mom and dad won’t always be supportive of you buying heaps of CDs, movies, or books at any given day. Or blame it on the financial crisis, if you must, and how our peso’s buying power is just weakening so much. 

Free makes us feel great but too much of it, just like any other thing in life may pose a greater danger in the long run. Many of us think that one or two songs or movies ripped off the net may be nothing short of harmless but really, if there are billions of us the world over who will at least nab a song or a movie, or a book off our trusted P2P sites, the movie/music/book, and even the gaming industry might lose billions of dollars (more in pesos, you do the math).

Although I don’t exactly claim to be anyone close to an intellectual rights lawyer, here’s the 411 on how our addiction for what’s free can actually end up blowing up our ultimate source of entertainment sooner—not later.

Remember Napster, one of the pioneering P2P sites that fed our hunger for free downloads? According to surfnetkids.com, when Napster came into the scene, record sale plummeted faster than you can say ‘Akon’. No one wanted to buy CDs anymore because everyone else found it illogical to spend a few bucks on something you could simply get for free. It’s toll on the economy? Let’s just say that a few years after it came about, the economy started losing around $ 6 billion or, Php 289,435,600.73.

Because no one really wanted to buy CDs and DVDs anymore, this ultimately affected a lot of small and independent record stores. No customers means no money coming in. a low demand eventually affects the supply, which eventually affects the people working behind the scenes to produce your CDs and DVDs. The closing down of thousands of record stores the world over made even you record store clerk lose her job. Feeling sorry yet?

There are people who download album upon album of songs and movies galore thinking that the entertainers and the artists are probably rich enough to earn more from their songs. Yes, entertainers and artists earn mucho dinero from the royalties that they get for their songs. Downloading those songs illegally makes them lose out as much as well, discouraging many song writers and artists from making more beautiful music and movies.

And how does this affect us? It’s simple. When the entertainment industry goes broke because of illegal file sharing, where else do we get our daily doze of entertainment? It’ll really boomerang back and hit us on the face before we know it.

Free is good. Free is nice. But sometimes, free can take a toll on us. Many of us are unaware that we may be sharing files illegally—files that were born from the artist’s blood and sweat. There are sites out there which encourage legal fire sharing and where we’ll only have to shell out a few bucks or even not at all because it’s ad supported.

Sometimes, free can really come at a great price.