As the web began to grow, Tim realised that its true potential would only be unleashed if anyone, anywhere could use it without paying a fee or having to ask for permission.
He explains: “Had the technology been proprietary, and in my total control, it would probably not have taken off. You can’t propose that something be a universal space and at the same time keep control of it.”
John von Neumann did something similar for general purpose computers by widely circulating the report on EDVAC [1] before the others on the design team could patent it. Because it was circulating publicly for a full year before a patent was filed, it could no longer be patented and we now have the prevalent “von Neumann” architecture.
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Draft_of_a_Report_on_the_EDVAC#Controversy
