So, semantics and rhetoric aside, what is _really_ this thing called "intellectual property"? In the real world, in actuality. A big game of Who Has The Best L

So, semantics and rhetoric aside, what is _really_ this thing called "intellectual property"? In the real world, in actuality. A big game of Who Has The Best Lawyers. Nothing less, nothing more. An expensive game, normally better played by big corporations, sometimes by small optimized "companies" (trolls), completely uncorrelated with any notion of fairness or economic sense. Another thing that exists not necessarily because is a good idea, but because of enormous inertia, like many other things we do "because that's how things are", even if they are completely stupid. A legal meme. (As an aside, I'm personally totally OK with trade secrets; I'd accept a sane, limited version of copyright as useful; and I think patents should be abolished. All of them. Software patents are just the most aggressive and vicious strain)