Media mogul Barry Diller is boldly predicting that "everything of any value" will no longer be free online. Paywalls will be built and consumers charged.
He believes the Internet "is passing from its free phase into a paid system." "Inevitably, I promise you, it will be paid. Not every single thing, but everything of any value." Content became free because of the fear of piracy, he told an advertising conference.
"People were so frightened of not being dinosaurs, and baring their heads, and not having what happened to the music industry happen to them, they just slapped everything up on the Internet for free," he said. "That's an accidental historical moment that will absolutely be corrected."
