hm. really? I thought that free software was a natural consequence of capitalism and technology. 'in a free market, the price of any commodity will be slightly above the marginal cost of production' - the marginal cost of another copy of Linux is rather close to zero.
I think similar economics push free and ad supported online content. The marginal cost of adding another user to a webapp is so close to zero that charging for it doesn't make a lot of sense.
I like Kevin Kelly but this piece was sadly misguided. Like trying to fit Cinderella's slipper on a line backer.