Comment Re:Public Funds (Score 1) 116
Let me introduce you to the Bayh Dole act. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayh%E2%80%93Dole_Act Before this act, all IP generated by federally funded research was assigned to the federal government which in essence put it into the public domain. The argument comes down to this. Before Bayh-Dole, most research likely to result in profitable products was conducted in companies and the results of the research were kept as trade secrets. After Bayh-Dole, we have much more research being conducted in universities and non-profit institutes. You need to publish your results in order to secure more funding, but the products of the research are assigned to the schools who license them. These licenses in turn fund the schools. Bottom-line, returning to public domain for federally funded research would "close source" research and probably stifle innovation.