@Don: What I find, for the USA, to be more disturbing in education/IP trends is the unhealthy focus on “monetizing” patents/IP of questionable value or ownership and the rather horrible standards that the USPTO apparently maintains. (Some of those patents they pass, one wonders whether or not the USPTO gets paid by the number of applications they accept.)

For examples see the SCO saga which is simply depressing, as well as the practice among high profile software companies at least of maintaining a “war chest” (patent portfolio) to assure MAD in case of patent suits... Also remember the game SUN employees used to play: who could turn the whackiest idea into a patent. Plus the usual IBM patents which amount to little more than a meeting during lunchbreak. (That is apparently patented by IBM now.)