Maybe it's because I understand the definition of the word and can think of lots of examples where it would apply, but I'm having trouble lately understanding why some people label their product or service "free" yet still charge for it.

The infomercial is one example of the disconnect between what the words say and what they mean. For example, that guy who sells the free computer learning CD's will tell you the "lesson is free" but you only pay shipping and handling. Okay, so I am getting a free CD but I am still out the $6.95 that it costs to ship the CD to me? I spend money and I get the item for "free"? That company, unfortunately, is not the exception.

The Internet is not much better, especially with more and more people peddling products and services through ubiquitous affiliate links. I don't have a problem with people hiring virtual a sales force to boost sales without having to deal with more in-house staff. It makes perfect sense to me and I wholeheartedly support those legitimate businesses who sell on the Internet.

No, the problem I have is when those affiliates use deceptive means to entice the unwary netizen to try the product or service. For example, let's take a look at the most common violator of truth in advertising: free movie/music/television/video game downloads. There are a number of unscrupulous websites for which a person can purchase a membership and gain access to a virtual library of pirated movies and music downloads. These stolen video and music files can then be downloaded onto the member's hard drive for future illegal viewing. (For the record, yes, I do have a problem with people profiting from the theft and sale of another person's work product, but that's another subject for another time. Look at the pious disclaimer at the bottom of their homepages to see for yourself their understanding of copyright infringement law.)

Okay, so those websites want to get more people to purchase memberships to their websites, so they offer affiliates a percentage of their ill-gotten gains to get people to come there. What do these affiliates do? Do they directly link to the pirated movie website? No. Are they honest and up front about the nature of their relationship with the website? Again, no.

What they do is create a teaser website, most often on a free blog site using a template, and tell you all about the movie and how cool it would be that you could "own" it for free. You get all excited about getting something for nothing, so you click their affiliate link cleverly placed within the text of the movie description. Your browser is redirected to the homepage of the pirated movie site and you are given the opportunity to PURCHASE a membership to watch your FREE movie. There isn't even a guarantee that the movie you want to watch will be on the website. Further, even if you do buy the membership, you are not guaranteed a watchable movie because many pirated movies are shot with a handheld videocamera in a movie theater.

Some great deal, huh? You pay your hard-earned money to an unscrupulous website owner, the affiliate who suckered you into purchasing a membership gets his or her cut, and you get a lesson in deceptive advertising.

And, no, the lesson is not FREE.