[rickmb]

"Those countries are (...) net consumers of IP". Seriously.

Only if you discount the entire human history before the last two centuries. Because beyond that, the biggest net consumer of IP in history is the US, and they got it all for free. Now think they have the right to charge the rest of the world for the little bit they added in the past few decades.

This is the great swindle of all IP-laws: it assigns ownership to whoever added the last little piece. Or rather: those few with the money to buy the rights from whoever added the latest piece in the puzzle.

What a surprise it mostly benefits the country that was on the rise just as IP legislation was massively expanded. The same country that is now trying to force draconian IP-protection measures on the rest of the world.