Trendwatching: Free Universities

"Mehitabel," said Archy the Cockroach, "both of our professions are being ruined by amateurs." Professors enjoy a bit of schadenfreude at the spectacle of journalists (that would be you, Friedman!) watching their cushion of economic rents as it hisses away to nothing them. But now, look at this, folks--the Khan Academy:

The Khan Academy is a not-for-profit organization with the mission of providing a high quality education to anyone, anywhere.

We have 700+ videos on YouTube covering everything from basic arithmetic and algebra to differential equations, physics, and finance which have been recorded by Salman Khan. He has also developed a free, adaptive math program available here.

To keep abreast of new videos as we add them, subscribe to the Khan Academy channel on YouTube.

Translated, so far as I can tell, an entirely free-gratis set of 700-odd (sic) mini-lectures on heaven knows what. Well, to be fair: there is a certain propeller-head tendency here, with a lot of geeky math and finance--so far as I can tell, nothing on the sonnet.

I saw it a few weeks ago and wondered what the catch was. But I can't see a catch: this just seems to be a guy with a well-nourished cortex who just likes to tell the world what he knows. Or a the say at the J school, we want people to pay us for what he seems to be giving away for free.
For comparison, here's an "accounting" version of the same thing.