Well, apples-to-apples, I don't think that people selling fiber generally care very much about DRM or taxi companies. Neither does most of the rest of the tech industry. It's not like the tech industry is some monolithic cabal -- nor should it be.
The rest of the seeming conundrum is, I think, evolved institutional codependence, bureaucratic inertia, and people's fundamental conservatism. That is:
1. Taxi companies and taxi regulators have grown up together. It's not that taxi companies are exactly lean, mean lobbying machines, and it's not that taxi regulators are exactly corrupt. It's that they know each other and are comfortable with each other and even when they're quarreling, they understand the limits of their relationship.
2. Hand-in-hand with that, people just don't like to make radical changes to regulatory systems. Even if the existing regulatory system is kind of crazy. There is a fairly large class of people who will assume that any system that's present must have some virtue, by mere testament of its presence.
3. Finally, regulatory commissions will tend to solve any problem by thinking they should regulate it. Some of it may be cold-blooded, "Well, I want to increase or at least preserve my influence, my power, heck, my job," but honestly I suspect that most of it isn't nearly that calculated. It's just, you've been spending years regulating taxis, when you see something new and taxi-like on the horizon, your response is much more likely to be, "Well, I should regulate that, too," than, "Maybe I should just pack it in and get out of everyone's way."
You say "monolithic cabal" like it is a bad thing. How about a coalition of technology companies willing to see the recorded performances business shrink a bit in return for better, less expensive, more secure, and more open devices.
The rest of the seeming conundrum is, I think, evolved institutional codependence, bureaucratic inertia, and people's fundamental conservatism. That is:
1. Taxi companies and taxi regulators have grown up together. It's not that taxi companies are exactly lean, mean lobbying machines, and it's not that taxi regulators are exactly corrupt. It's that they know each other and are comfortable with each other and even when they're quarreling, they understand the limits of their relationship.
2. Hand-in-hand with that, people just don't like to make radical changes to regulatory systems. Even if the existing regulatory system is kind of crazy. There is a fairly large class of people who will assume that any system that's present must have some virtue, by mere testament of its presence.
3. Finally, regulatory commissions will tend to solve any problem by thinking they should regulate it. Some of it may be cold-blooded, "Well, I want to increase or at least preserve my influence, my power, heck, my job," but honestly I suspect that most of it isn't nearly that calculated. It's just, you've been spending years regulating taxis, when you see something new and taxi-like on the horizon, your response is much more likely to be, "Well, I should regulate that, too," than, "Maybe I should just pack it in and get out of everyone's way."