Actually, most funding is to universities and other non-profit institutions where a
requirement is that the results are published freely so that the benefits of the
research are available to all. Outside of reseach under constraints of national
security, any assertion of proprietary rights is subject to the detailed public
interest protections of the Bayh-Dole bill.
Diane,
In the case of the Internet, however, a great deal
of funding - perhaps the preponderance - was provided
to companies who retained the assets. MCI, IBM, and
Sprint - who provided most of the underlying networks,
certainly retained them as assets - usually complete
with revenue generating customers. Product vendors
like Sun and Cisco largely owe their existence to this
government largesse.
Recall that this activity is as much part of nurturing
a strategic industry base as it is in altruistic research.
The country (and derivatively all of us) have also profited
handsomely from this strategy. It's also no different in
other regions and countries.
--tony
