-Inspired by Dewar's-
Even if - especially if content industrialists are quaking in their boots over the ability of electronic technologies to bypass traditional distribution practices and foil licensing tactics, James Dewar is probably correct. It is unlikely that a new technology format can replace the venerable tome overnight. Wasn't the invention of TV supposed to be the death-knell of radio? Of print media?

(The Information Age and the Printing Press: Looking Backward to See Ahead By James Dewar. Rand Corporation, 1998. You can't link to it. It's a PDF that requires access.)
Trust.

I won't completely follow James with the greater analogy: comparing the invention, improvement and application of the printing press with the invention, improvement and application of the web isn't all wrong, just somewhat misapplied. Taking publishing authority from the second estate's scriptorium and putting in into the divergent fourth estate's pressroom is one step, but does it follow that recent online developments have made everyone a potential author?

Success in letters today depends more on the booksellers' - and authors' - ability to inflate value, usually determined by readership. Even the best in the profession know this, and are loathe to change it. Because the hysterical auteur and owner response to user sharing, their efforts to limit the practice with legislation, are best understood as a delaying action. Gives the publishing companies time to put together better encryption packages, line up the most profitable distribution program. The house always wins in the end. The house wins.