This is my last guest post here as part of the Blogger Book Tour I'm taking part in for Darknet. (Looks like a scorching, bbq-friendly holiday weekend dead ahead here in the SF Bay Area. Enjoy, folks!)

I'll leave with an observation about the copyfight movement. When I first began conducting research for Darknet three years ago this month, it struck me that issues like the DMCA, perpetual copyright extensions, infringement, inducement, illegal art and all the rest were known to only a very, very small segment of the online community.

But that's beginning to change, as I've noticed in my trips to different parts of the country with different kinds of crowds. It's changing not because of a mass education program or a sudden upsurge in public interest in copyright and the law. Rather, it's happening at a more fundamental level. We're seeing a sea change in how people are interacting with media.

Last weekend's Gnomedex conference in Seattle was on the one hand a total geek-out. But on the other hand, this crowd of early adopters was telling in how media-savvy they were: not only were 90 percent of the 400 attendees sitting in front of laptops, but there was also an ocean of digital cameras, camera phones, camcorders, PDAs, you name it. As Adam Curry noted in his keynote, "We are the media." There's no doubt about that now.

The consequences of that for public discourse loom large. That's why, as I wrote my book, I began focusing less on copyright law or the current bills before Congress and more on the long-term outlook for media culture.

The future of television is not about interactive commands that let you buy Jennifer Aniston's sweater. It's about putting a blasting cap to big media's strangehold on our nightly viewing habits by opening up the television experience to the multitude of niche media that ordinary citizens are beginning to create.

The future of movies is not about digital delivery of Hollywood entertainment at the multiplex. It's about instant access to Hollywood classics, new releases, indie fare and grassroots films, at any time, on any device.

The future of music is not about finding a silver-bullet DRM solution for secure delivery of megastar content. It's about building new platforms for recommending and filtering thousands of new voices and creative talents that would never make it through the record labels' sausage factory.

As the cost of the tools of media creativity continue to plummet and ease of use increases, millions more of us will begin taking part in the personal media revolution. And when that happens, as it inevitably will, the laws and structures built for the analog era -- such as the DMCA's provisions to prop up the business model of today's music industry -- will begin to totter, and then topple.

When we're all global publishers, the inequities of today's copyright regime will become plain to all. Then, we will want to access our musical and visual heritage and build on top of our culture. Then, digital innovation will begin to truly flourish. Then, as Ernest writes below, we will finally be able to realize the limitless possibilties of creative culture.