There is the possibility of embedded codes, which strikes me as a very promising area. Lots of people are working on that - trying to get their own coding systems as a method of protecting intellectual property. I have seen the estimates that say half of all software is pirated, but a lot of that includes people, for example, who have two machines and they are not going to buy a program twice. I think the software makers have learned that if they cut their price and expand their market, then essentially they won't get as much cheating. If you count the amount of money it spends on stock options, you'll find its earnings are pretty flat.
Some people argue that the stock market is so high because it is reflecting the value of knowledge.
But it is not at all clear to me that it will be the shareholders who harvest that value. Thinking this requires a hell of an assumption that corporations will be able to appropriate the value of the knowledge of their employees. I think that is far from certain. I don't know that there will be a formal battle. It's one of those murky things that will be fought over in a lot of different areas.