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by eeZah7Ux 2767 days ago
Comparing developers with academics is more apt. Mathematicians and other scientists don't charge usage fees for their theorems or discoveries.

Yes, you can pay the author for a book but you can reuse and modify ideas and concepts at will.

Job security is quite relevant in academia: most discoveries in the last 100 years were [in]directly funded by government and researchers were usually not working under time or financial pressure.