Oddly enough, Steve, I have been pondering this question myself. In fact I had decided to throw in the towel, but now I've changed my mind. Authorship for me is a vocation. Whether anybody pays for my work is no longer an issue. I plan to continue writing, but simply as an exercise in self fulfilment. That's not to say that I will pay no attention to the reader, or that I won't be glad to be read.
I can't envisage any regulatory mechanism that would protect an author's rights. The average quality of work offered is bound to decline, and the only people able to follow the vocation of authorship at a professional level will be those, such as myself, of independent means. Ironically, those means were provided by authorship in the pre-internet age.
I
blogged about this back in February, and my piece was discussed
here at MR.