Starting in the fall of 2014, the renowned and famously free Cooper Union college in Manhattan will start charging tuition for the first time in over a century.

Because we can't all afford to eat off NY Mag's Cheap Eats list, this week several popular fast food chains are giving away [vaguely] food[ish things] for free. Here's a guide to who's giving away what and how far you'll have to debase yourself to get it:

Dinner parties and obituaries could become a lot less interesting if the Supreme Court votes to uphold a law which makes it a federal offense to lie about having received military honors.

If Hilton hotel guest Rodney Harmon had known that the USA Today left by hotel staff outside his door wasn't free, he wouldn't have read it. But he did read it, and the hotel charged him the 75-cent fee, so now Harmon's suing Hilton hotels in federal court.

Big Ideas Author Malcolm Gladwell, a Manhattanite of the New Yorker, has issued a smackdown review of Free, the book from Big Ideas Author Chris Anderson, a Berkeleyan of San Francisco's Wired. If that's not provocative enough, Gladwell sounds downright grumpy.

How did the Virginia Quarterly Review connect Chris Anderson's book to Wikipedia, thus unraveling a plagiarism scandal? A strange use of parentheses.

Chris Anderson has been caught lifting huge chunks out of Wikipedia for his book Free. The irony speaks for itself. But it's worth noting that the Wired editor's excuses are disconcertingly clichéd.

The accountants have taken over the Googleplex, once a hotbed of amiably unprofitable innovation. The notion that ads would pay the way for everything has been dropped — and "fee" is replacing "free."

O, munificent Howard Schultz: starting today, Starbucks is offering free WiFi! The only problem is, the "free" WiFi has more strings attached to it than a tennis racquet. First, you have to buy a Starbucks card, which has to have a minimum of five bucks on it. Ready to log on and read nytimes.com while sipping your tall skim Cinnamon Dolce Latte with foam? Not so fast. Before you do so you have to register online for the Starbucks Rewards Program. Going forward, if you want to keep your free WiFi, you're going to have to use that Starbucks card at least once a month, otherwise it's voided. Oh, and you can't even squirrel away your time: Each purchase earns you two free hours, which you'll have to blow in one sitting. So it's kind of useless. But the timing worked out nicely! Mayor Bloomberg just proclaimed this to be Internet week in New York, "a weeklong festival of events saluting New York’s thriving Internet industry and the many talented companies, organizations and innovators creating the future of online media!"

Gnarls Barkley, the somewhat experimental hip hop duo whose ability to walk the line between "catchy" and "crazy" has made them beloved among millions more fans than Cee-Lo ever could have dreamed of when he was in the far superior group Goodie Mob, has a new album due out on April 8. But now the damn thing has leaked to the internet. That's what they get for having so many more fans who just play on the computer all day! If you're so inclined, a link to the download of "The Odd Couple," and the first video, after the jump.

We heard through the grapevine that copies of this month's Wired were being taken off newsstands without payment — because unsuspecting readers thought the giant "Free!" on the cover meant the magazine was available no charge. Wired editor-in-chief Greg Anderson tells Valleywag:

Being editor-in-chief of a major magazine must do wonders for your book sales. (Or not.) Wired head honcho Chris Anderson published a 4,703-word excerpt touting his new book and how "free" is the future. Want to read it for yourself? Grab Nick Douglas's 100-word version, read the full article on Wired.com, or get your very own dead-tree edition of Wired — free!