Chris Anderson believes that computer technology is radically changing our world and that these changes are largely to be welcomed. Anderson, the editor of Wired magazine, made his name as a digital guru with The Long Tail, his 2007 bestseller about how the net is opening up niche consumer markets. His new book, Free, looks at another phenomenon of online consumerism: the fact that content and services distributed through the internet will sooner or later end up being free.

Giving away stuff is the oldest marketing trick in the book. The phrase “there’s no such thing as a free lunch” comes from New Orleans in the 1870s, when saloon owners gave complimentary meals to drinkers knowing that the lure of food would bring in extra customers and make them more money. Similarly, advertising revenue has made things seem free since at least the birth of radio. In this case it is only an illusion, since listeners are effectively working for the advertisers by listening to their messages.

The fact that we can read newspapers on the internet without shelling out essentially works in the same way. The difference is that the illusion of freeness is more complete and the content is paid for in a more subtle way. Anderson’s conclusion is that this drive towards freeness is inevitable. Businesses, including the beleaguered music and newspaper industries, should just accept it, consider the internet as the ultimate advertising platform and think of other ways of making money.

Anderson has clearly put his finger on a pressing problem for businesses, but his one point, fleshed out with only loosely relevant digressions, is stretched a bit too thin. This leads him into increasingly utopian pronouncements about our new era of freeness. In one breathless moment he cries: “It’s a consumer’s paradise: the web has become the biggest store in history and everything is 100% off.” But from a slightly different perspective this online utopia can seem like a very sinister dystopia. As Anderson points out, the offer of free stuff tends to short-circuit critical judgment. If a product doesn’t cost anything we might as well take it. If he has his way we’ll all be turned into mindless conduits for advertisers. It might also be difficult to share Anderson’s enthusiasm for Free when you have paid £18.99 for the pleasure of reading about it.

Free by Chris Anderson
Random House £18.99 pp274

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