Free for the end-user at least.
Did we really not have to pay for that information? For a while the university even supplied the paper available in the printer. Only a few meters away photocopying cost a fortune, yet in the computer laboratory we were frantically printing out whatever seemed interesting and worthwhile. But even that wasn't exactly free. After all, tuition cost a fortune, and if you wanted to get that same information from home you needed to buy a computer, a modem (they didn't come standard back then) and pay an ISP for service and the phone company for the line. But even so, that sort of accessibility was definitely something that seemed free.
Go to: Something for Nothing.