Free culture

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Free culture (also known as free or free culture ) is a recurring and controversial buzzword in the media that emerged in the years when the Internet became a mass medium . It refers to the comprehensive range of free products or content available on the Internet, for example in the areas of journalism , literature , music , film and image as well as software and games, as well as a generally negative attitude towards paid content ( Chris Anderson : “Wer im Netz wants to be present, must offer its content free of charge. ”) The corresponding recipients are also assumed to have a free mentality .

history

In the 20th century the medium of the free newspaper developed , which offers not only advertisements but also editorial content. In the 1990s, newspapers were one of the first media to use the Internet as an additional channel of communication with customers. Since Internet access was not very widespread at that time, there was no economic danger for the printed editions by publishing newspaper articles for free; it was usually viewed as an additional service. It was not until the early to mid-2000s, when the Internet became more widespread, that online editions began to compete with print editions. Almost all newspapers, including quality papers, now operated large online portals in which, in addition to the articles in the printed edition, additional, current reports could be found. Many attempts to offer online articles for a fee initially failed. One of the latter larger newspapers that one until 2011 payment model ( paywall introduced), which was New York Times . On April 9, 2011, a voluntary payment option was created for the taz's online service . The news magazine Der Spiegel still offers an archive of the first issue, which appeared in January 1947. The phrase "The end of free culture" soon appeared regularly in the media - for example in connection with paid apps for tablet computers .

In the media industry there have recently been an increasing number of initiatives for extended copyright on the Internet. In 2012, the associations of newspaper and magazine publishers announced that they would join the German Content Alliance , which already includes private and public broadcasting as well as associations from the fields of music, books and film. The copyright initiative , which includes professional associations from the fields of journalism, literature, music, film and image, called for “recognition of the rights of creative people”. Demands for royalty-free copying and publication on the Internet are just as incompatible with the rights of authors and artists as any processing of their works by third parties. Through a planned ancillary copyright on the Internet, search engines are also to pay for press releases. On December 12, 2012, Die Welt was the first national German daily newspaper to reintroduce a payment system for accessing digital content. The problems of a “free culture” are being discussed again, particularly in connection with the issue of newspaper death.

The book The Zero Marginal Cost Society by the American economist Jeremy Rifkin , who uses the term “free society” and propagates his theses in various lectures , also caused discussion .

criticism

In 2009 the business journalist and blogger Thomas Knüwer denied the existence of a “free culture on the Internet” and called it a myth of media companies. Newspapers have always been subsidized through advertising , such as the New York Sun in 1834: "At that time, newspapers lowered their price from several cents to a single one in order to sell more copies - and thus become attractive to advertisers". Today "large parts of the printed edition" are given away, "other parts no longer fully cover their printing and distribution costs - let alone the editorial costs" and there are even free newspapers . The free culture is "an easy excuse not to have to worry", which means that the media houses have to increase the time spent on their pages. This works “through quality, originality and interactivity”. Also called Kai Biermann the term Free Culture in his blog Neusprech.org "a lie", as firstly the contents of attention would be paid, "which we will for example be able to implement in prices" and secondly funded by paid advertising. The excitement is "only hypocritical whining", since the principle has been implemented in private television for almost thirty years in the form of free TV . Stefan Niggemeier noted in his blog that the principle for the print industry despite edition decline range is significant, what about the image meant newspaper, "that anyone who buys a copy, it passes on average to three other people." As a result, nine million people read the paper every day without paying for it and their number is “three times as high as those who pay for the paper.” For example, “a huge free culture has developed” in the print sector Publishers are welcome: “In truth, the Mathias Döpfners of this country have no problem with people who use their media without paying for it, despite all the howling that performance must be rewarded. You also deserve from these people because you can sell their attention to the advertisers. "

Sascha Lobo summarized the points of criticism of the alleged free mentality of Internet users as follows: “Free mentality” is not a mentality, as a number of different studies indicate that file shareers probably spend more money on cultural products than non-file shareers. In addition, the sales of digital goods set new records every year. Free cultural consumption is also a very old phenomenon, since books could already be read for free with the invention of libraries : “It seems as if it were a recurring phenomenon of the cultural market: every successful type of product develops economically operated, free, legal variants. When describing the existing problems in the culture industry , neither mentality nor free are correct with the term free mentality . ”Ultimately, the term free mentality would obscure the problem, since the problem“ would be with the naughty customers ”and not in one's own offer. “Even two hundred years [sic!] After the invention of the Internet, buying digital goods is still a bizarre imposition. Music cannot be easily played on all devices for buyers, popular films and TV series are often not even legal to buy and ten years later the e-book industry is playing every single error in the music industry. ”Lobo named as an example the digital rights management (DRM), which does not prevent a single illegal download, but only leads to the annoyance of the customer.

The German economist Gisela Schmalz criticizes the free culture on the Internet in her book No Economy . In their view, the practice of free supply and demand leads to quality losses in the long run. Trading at "zero tariff" results in an unfair economic distribution. Data from online companies would be stored, processed and sold, i.e. only monetized by a few companies.

Jaron Lanier calls on us to look at the downside in addition to the “free temptations” of the new network world: “We regularly communicate with people who we would not even have known about before the network age. We can find information on almost any topic at any time. But we've also learned that our devices and idealistic-motivated digital networks are being used by ultra-powerful, distant organizations to spy on us. We are analyzed more than we analyze. "

See also

Web links

supporting documents

  1. ↑ Media groups: The end of the free culture on the Internet has come , Wirtschaftswoche from November 9, 2011
  2. ↑ Paid Content: "New York Times" introduces the digital subscription . Mirror online. Retrieved April 7, 2011.
  3. ↑ Nicolai Kühling: The tzi analysis - growth that makes you happy. In: taz.de. April 13, 2017, accessed March 4, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Ilija Matusko: Income taz.zahl ich - a different way of fighting for freedom of the press. In: taz.de. June 13, 2017, accessed March 9, 2019 .
  5. ↑ DER SPIEGEL 1/1947. In: Spiegel Online . 1947, accessed May 15, 2020 .
  6. ↑ The end of the free culture . Wiener Zeitung Online. Retrieved April 7, 2011.
  7. ↑ Media groups: The end of the free culture on the Internet has come . Handelsblatt. Retrieved April 7, 2011.
  8. ↑ Publishers join the Alliance against "Free Culture" , heise online from April 26, 2012
  9. ↑ Ancillary copyright : The end of the free culture on the Internet. In: rp-online.de. August 29, 2012, accessed May 15, 2020 .
  10. ↑ Urs Meier: 100 years of Riepl's law. Visiting an original and long-lasting hypothesis. In: Journal 21 , January 23, 2013
  11. ↑ https://www.tt.com/artikel/8398017/jeremy-rifkin-endet-oesterreich-auf-die-gratis-gesellschaft-vor
  12. ↑ The Myth of Free Culture, Thomas Knüwer in the handelsblatt.blog of July 27, 2009
  13. ^ Free culture , Kai Biermann in neusprech.org of September 23, 2011
  14. ↑ Free culture print , Stefan Niggemeier from January 3, 2011
  15. ↑ Why the term "free mentality" is nonsense , Spiegel Online from December 19, 2012
  16. ↑ Gisela Schmalz: No Economy - Why the free mania is destroying the Internet . Frankfurt am Main, Eichborn Verlag 2009
  17. ↑ Jaron Lanier: "Who Owns the Future?" 3rd edition, Hamburg 2014, p. 22 f.