More to the point, until someone/some intellectual body comes up with a credible replacement for IP (as we now know it) that precludes the middlemen and rentier

More to the point, until someone/some intellectual body comes up with a credible replacement for IP (as we now know it) that precludes the middlemen and rentiers from profiting disproportionately from their clients hard work all this talk about IP and it's protection/abuse isn't going to do much more than stir an already seething cauldron of personal opinions half-heard and badly retold.