Lawrence Lessig sees culture as coming more and more under the control of -- no, not the Ministry of Culture -- big corporations. A worrying trend, esp. in countries like Thailand which are toeing the Western (read, corporate) line on intellectual property rights. An important read if you care at all about building a knowledge-based society.

http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/policy/2002/08/15/lessig.html