The force of competition will keep free available for a long, long time to come. As long as the marginal cost of reproduction & distribution stays close to zero

The force of competition will keep free available for a long, long time to come. As long as the marginal cost of reproduction & distribution stays close to zero and the initial investment is not too high, free is a great model for a new product/content to gain wide market acceptance. An alternative to free will only be available if the content/resource is scarce enough (i.e. high barrier to entry) that no more than a handful of producers can create a competitive product. These conditions seem applicable to only a few niches.