Benkler, Yochai. The wealth of networks: how social production transforms markets and freedom. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006. ISBN 0-300-11056-1.

Summary: The world's economy is entering an era in which its structure and organization will change radically: The principal change is a rapid decentralization of the production of information and cultural works, shifting these processes out of the control of corporations and into the hands of the general population. It is becoming apparent that proprietary markets are less well adapted to the new structure -- in particular, less efficient in meeting the needs and wants of consumers -- than shared commons.

These changes provide an opportunity for ordinary people to obtain greater degrees of freedom and autonomy, both as individuals and as participants in democratic political processes. We need no longer depend on the increasingly corrupt mass media to serve as gatekeepers for news and opinion, or on corporations to direct and manage cultural production. Even social justice, human rights, and the economic development of poor nations can advance more rapidly in a networked information economy in which key resources are commons rather than markets.

Currently, the strongest resistance to this change has taken the form of reactionary and protectionist legislation (e.g., the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act, and various copyright-extension laws). It is likely that such laws will increasingly be seen as unrealistic, counterproductive, and outmoded as the the networked information economy becomes more established.