There is still loads of money to be made in photography and from syndication, and you really are an idiot of the highest order if you give your images away.
I was working with someone recently, who drew the unlucky straw when working at a celeb event and got put one of the places you'd not want to be. Except that it actually turned out to be really lucky and he got some photos no one else had.
When we were in the green room later he got multiple offers in minutes, all wanting to use the images unpaid. All the junior photographers there were saying 'go for it' you'll be in this paper, that paper, this magazine, that magazine. Loads of publicity. We both laughed told them they were fools.
Instead he put a minimum price on his images and within an hour was 10K richer.
In contrast at another event I was working inside with some celebs, one of my images was picked up by a daily and I was offered £500.00, reasonable money. I was happy with that. 20 minute later they had cancelled the usage because someone else had offered them an image for free. I later saw that image, it was crap, uncredited, as most images are and only used because it was free.
And you still want to argue that working for free is a good idea?