Just a side note to all this, nearly all the technologies which have transformed the world over the last 75? years either are, or are derivatives of, projects funded by the government for defense purposes.
A DDF apropos example: SABRE is based on a system developed for tracking missiles in real time. (I forget what it was called and I'm too lazy to look it up.)
-of course that doesn't mean they would've been made into the viable products they are without patents/copyrights, it's just an interesting tidbit...
Maybe one day when I'm bored I'll look into how much medical research is government funded