The Internet is, in many ways, the online marketplace of the world, and also the online junk heap. Just as people are free to offer all kinds of quality product, so that same freedom allows people to make available stunningly bad content; the Internet does not discriminate. You might think that the paid content will be the good stuff while the free things, like blogs and things, must be bad (why else would it be free?), but that’s really not the case. There is all sorts of free stuff online, much of it high quality, available completely legally and for download or viewing right now.
Sometimes professional creators will make their creations available for free – a game publisher might put up their old games for download, or a band might release their newest album for free or a pay-what-you-will model. Why? Maybe if you play the old games, you’ll enjoy them enough that you’ll want to pay to play the newer stuff, or you like the new music album so much that you decide to buy tickets to see the band play live. Some websites even offer all their content for free and make all their money through related advertising that appears on the side of the page. Webcomics are a good example of this.
Of course, the Internet is also the world’s largest library, and there is plenty of content available that has been around long enough to enter the public domain, so you can find it for free and use it as you will. Much of the literary history of the world can be found online, so you can read all of Shakespeare’s plays or consult Sun Tzu’s masterwork, The Art of War. Sometimes people even produce content for love of the material and make it available for free because they want to share. Whatever your interest, you’re likely to find some free content available if you seek it out.