And some people soon learnt how to exploit it fairly quickly, forcing developers to adapt and throw-in counter measures to block their loopholes: Who's the Spanish jerk draining the Faucet? (this thread is particularly amusing to me).

The use of the term "free" is often really more of a "low cost of opportunity", generally involving someone’s personal time, as opposed to making a purchase. Faucets I figure fall under this conception, although with less and less ROT (Return on Time) as time goes by.