The already huge amount of valuable information available for free will become even huger, and many services that we happily pay for today will become much cheaper or free. Well, I shall make my debut as a theoretical economist, and posit the Law of Loss Leaders. A loss leader is a product which is given away or sold at a loss in order to generate publicity for another product. Netscape Navigator is of course a classic example. In fact, many software developers find it economical to give away certain products for various reasons.
Software is the ultimate loss leader, because it costs nothing to produce an additional copy.
That is, its marginal cost is nil. Any product or service that can be delivered via the Web at no marginal cost will eventually be offered to consumers free. Another way of putting it is that no one will be able to charge for something that costs them little or nothing. By offering a traffic-builder or loss leader for a lower price than the competition. A price war quickly ensues, and sooner or later everyone in the business is forced to offer that product or service free in order to stay in the game, and sell their main product.