[mulligan]

you can literally pay for the product (e.g., an ISP services) and still have meta data you generate bundled and sold.

the saying is overused and mostly misleading, unfortunately.

[stjohnswarts]

I believe it's simply a statement that you can't take the converse of. If something is free, then the company providing it must get some benefit from it. You can't flip that around in very many cases.