What keeps me awake at night is that we'll have some well-intended but overly broad regulation that will prevent new and socially beneficial innovations from hitting the market.
What we tend to find in technology is that new technologies come on the market and they are used by consumers in ways that are not originally contemplated. In my testimony I talked about the Sony Betamax controversy where Sony introduced the Betamax, which was a device that allowed people to record television shows. The movie industry took it to court and it ended up in the United States Supreme Court where it was declared a legal product, by one vote. It then became a very popular product.
The irony is that what the movie industry was concerned about was the record button, but what consumers found valuable in the Betamax was the play button. What that did was start a brand new industry in pre-recorded media, such as compact discs and DVDs, which ended up making up the majority of the movie industry's revenues some years out.
Had they been successful in shutting down that technology, they would also have shut down one of their biggest revenue streams. You see that a great deal in technology, where it goes in ways you don't expect.
The general trend is that new technologies open up new distribution platforms, allow access to new consumer groups, and allow new ways to monetize, as you're seeing now on the Internet with the growth of streaming music.
Our advice is always to be very light-handed on the regulation of new technologies because you're not sure what kinds of opportunities in terms of creative opportunities or economic opportunities you may be inadvertently foreclosing.