Why Pay for a Free Video?

Yesterday, I wrote a post about the three Common Craft videos that should be in every technology integrator's training library. In that post I mentioned that if you're using the videos you should probably pony-up the money for the licensing (it's cheap). I've gotten a couple of emails this morning asking why should someone buy the video when it can be viewed for free online. I wrote about that question last fall so rather than rehashing it, I've included that post below.

A couple of days ago I Tweeted that I was buying a copy of Common Craft's video Wikis in Plain English. The fact that I bought anything may come as a shock to some readers. After all, this is Free Technology for Teachers and you can watch all of the Common Craft videos for free at various places on the Internet. So why did I purchase Wikis in Plain English? I purchased a copy of it because I will be conducting some workshops over the next few months in which Wikis in Plain English will be useful. Since I will be getting paid for those workshops, using the free version of the Common Craft videos would not be right. Put another way, Lee and Sachi put a lot of their time and effort into the production of their videos, for me to profit from their work without paying for that work would be like stealing. Therefore, I bought a copy of Wikis in Plain English and will purchase other videos from Common Craft as needed. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people that haven't come to the same conclusion that I have and have abused the work of Lee and Sachi Lefever. Because of those abuses, the newest Common Craft video is not embeddable although you can still view it for free on Common Craft.

I know this post might sound like a sales pitch for Common Craft so please know that I don't have any affiliation with or financial interest in Common Craft. I posted this just to share that even for a cheapskate like me there are times when it is appropriate to spend money for quality online content.

Update: Common Craft offers a discount to schools. Click here to get the details from them.