In socialist terms, the PC is the dominant means of production in our economy. It was twenty years ago that the number of knowledge workers exceeded the number of production workers. Now most of them have a networked PC on their desks.
Digital networks are a new medium.
Writers used to hand their manuscripts and copyrights to a publishing company, which owned the editorial, printing, and distribution processes. Micropayments and merchant accounts at the online bank will soon let the writers run their own bookstores. They can keep their copyrights. Watch this transformation happening in the music industry . Book publishing and magazine publishing are right behind.