I don't get why people rail against developers trying to make money with their products through either charging or advertising. I want developers to make money so they'll build more cool stuff for us all. - Robert Scoble

The sense of entitlement is infuriating. This will change though. Google will miss a quarter, and woah-boy just wait and see what google services get axed and how intrusive their ads become then. The VC wells will dry up and the media giants giving everything away are already crumbling. We're cursed to live in interesting times. :) - mikepk

I'd prefer paying a license fee over advertising that will no doubt be ineffective on me, but either way, development costs time and money. How does this all work out if everything is free? - Mark Trapp

I agree that the entitlement attitude is getting more prevalent. People don't take the time to simply think and understand that, whether it's software, games, websites, etc., it all costs money to develop and maintain. - Spencer

Didn't Quark say that? Ok yeah I am a big geek. What can I say. - Brandon LeBlanc from twhirl

Brandon: I have to admit, I thought you were talking about Quark's sense of entitlement with Quark XPress: talk about a company that exhibits the exact opposite extreme of the developer/consumer relationship. And then I realized you were talking about a Ferengi. - Mark Trapp

Hah! I thought Brandon was talking about QuarkXPress too. What a lame company. - Robert Scoble

We are in the hashing out period of the social web. Places like Facebook and Twitter will eventually begin charging for premium content, or the ability to follow people beyond a certain threshold. I have no problem with this. What I would have a problem with is each and every damn web 2.0 startup, calling itself the next social revolution, charging money just to try out its beta service. Facebook is pretty well established, but few other products are ready for prime time at this point. - Bob Blunk

What Bob + mikepk said. As ad inventories pile up during the recession, the Google model of ad-support will get creaky and fail for weaker brands. Products will either charge for premium content and service or they will fail. Natural selection applies to business models, too. - Sprague D

This is why the freemium model is coming back into favor. You give some stuff for free, but the more interesting stuff costs something. I think this is also good because developers can see what people want and build premium services based on that. - Rob Diana

So, on one hand, consumers feel entitled to see content for free--and even without advertising; on the other hand, authors and other content creators feel entitled to a living. Something has to give. Just remember that blasting people's sense of entitlement goes both ways. If authors don't like the prevailing culture, they don't have to play. Pull an "atlas shrugged" and see if it brings the world to its knees. Good luck. - Daniel Tunkelang