One of the ignored aspects of this is what is "owned". Let's say that the folks who through "pure" research managed to patent and/or "own" the speed of light.

Would every application which used light be forced to pay royalties? If you believed in unrestrained "free" enterprise you would.

Or how about the fact that an object water displaces it's equivalent weight, not volume. Would every shipowner have to pay some Greek holding company? If the people who believe in unfettered capitalism had their way you would.

Some things are way, way too important to be left to private ownership, including but not limited to laws of physics, chemistry, the human genome, drug patents and so on. Man's greed is unlimited, and there have to be some checks on it, just as there are on the other drives.

Arf