For The Times They Are A-Changin'
People who work in tech take it for granted that every major industry has already or will at some point be disrupted. Those of us who spend our days in this industry see the decreasing cost infrastructure, the democratization of publishing, the connections between people enabled by networks, the proliferation of mobile technology, and the lower barriers to content creation as harbingers of inevitable, irrefutable change that will leave nothing in our society untouched.
Because I see this future as a certainty, I find it surreal to watch someone come to grips with this change as they realize it has arrived on their doorstep. As the tech industry celebrates it's victories against PIPA and SOPA this week, Chris Dodd and the MPAA are coming to grips with their new reality:
"The startlingly speedy collapse of the antipiracy campaign by some of Washington’s savviest players — not just the motion picture association, but also the United States Chamber of Commerce and the Recording Industry Association of America — signaled deep changes in antipiracy lobbying in the future. By Mr. Dodd’s account, no Washington player can safely assume that a well-wired, heavily financed legislative program is safe from a sudden burst of Web-driven populism."
If Dodd is exemplary of others in the political scene, I think we'll look back and see that what happened with PIPA and SOPA was a wakeup call that a populace linked by highly connected, near real time communication networks can't ignored. Politicians in the Arab Spring countries had to come to terms with this months ago, but I think PIPA/SOPA may be the first strong sign that the political system in our country will not be immune to the effects of those same forces.
I can't help but think about the lyrics in that Bob Dylan song:
"Come senators, congressmenPlease heed the callDon't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hallFor he that gets hurtWill be he who has stalledThere's a battle outsideAnd it is ragin'It'll soon shake your windowsAnd rattle your wallsFor the times they are a-changin'."
