Getting Rich off Those Who Work for Free

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Clever entrepreneurs and even established companies can profit from this volunteerism--but only if they don't get too greedy. The key, Benkler says, is "managing the marriage of money and nonmoney without making nonmoney feel like a sucker." In software, where IBM and other companies charge billions of dollars to install and run otherwise free Linux systems, this seems to be working--in part because Linux volunteers can make money from their expertise and there's a clear understanding of what one can charge for.

In other fields, it's not so clear. In a critique of Benkler's work last summer, business writer Nicholas Carr speculated that Web 2.0 media sites like Digg, Flickr and YouTube are able to rely on volunteer contributions simply because a market has yet to emerge to price this "new kind of labor." He and Benkler then entered into what has come to be widely known in Web circles as the "Carr-Benkler wager": a bet on whether, by 2011, such sites will be driven primarily by volunteers or by professionals.

It's tempting for any professional journalist to root for Carr. I certainly don't want to be replaced by volunteers. But then, this magazine couldn't be produced without the volunteers, such as Yochai Benkler, who allow us journalists to interview them. Cable TV news channels are pageants of volunteerism, with much airtime filled by unpaid guests. The majority of these people aren't motivated by Kropotkin's spirit of mutual aid--they seek fame, an audience for their ideas, higher fees on the speaking circuit. But for those minutes on air, they are working for free.

To read Justin Fox's daily take on business, go to time-blog.com/curious_capitalist