Same happened in NewEconomy of Europe and USA in May 2000. It's the result of a damaged and destroyed patent- and license system, nothing else. The whole sphere of intellectual property is in highest danger.
Wow, nothing like simple explanations for complex issues, huh? I may be wrong, but I have that feeling you're one of those people who automatically equate "change" with "catastrophe" (since you seem to be so fond of quoting people, read up on Schumpeter for some thoughts on that).
The downfall (or rather, consolidation) of the "New Economy" came when venture capitalists and other investors realised that prefixing an "e" to a (possibly not even yet existing) product's name and selling it over the Web doesn't generate demand automatically.
In some not-quite-as-visible places, said "New Economy" is booming: for instance, the automotive industry has built complex virtual B2B marketplace systems, for the benefit of both sellers and buyers, and yet that market is still in its infancy. We're talking many billions of USD or EUR p.a. here, and it's not a soap bubble that'll burst soon. Granted, it's more of a vertical market, and you seem to be talking about mass-produced commodities. The NE was/is about selling services, not selling goods.
As regards software: software patents are definitely one of the stupidest ideas anyone ever came up with, and I'm glad the EU seems to be taking an anti-patent stance in that area. Software patents inhibit innovation, which is quite the opposite of what patents were originally intended for. (Hilarious examples are provided on an almost weekly basis in the USA, where some companies are successfully trying to get patents for the computing world's equivalents of the wheel and the lever.)
I agree that something's definitely wrong in the area of biotechnology / pharmaceuticals patenting, and I see no simple solutions. But I don't see TEOTWAWKI either.
f.