Unfortunately in a lot of cases, someone else cannot do the job. And certainly not for the money that is offered by most universities. Go ahead and find me someone who can write C and C++ and Python and Java well, do complicated mathematics, understand quantum field theory/genetics/taxonomy/quantum optics/nuclear engineering/etc., manage large research projects, teach classes of 50-100 students a few times a week (having prepared all the material!) and is willing to do all this 60-70 hours a week every year of their career for $80k-$100k/year, after investing 10+ years of the adulthood in an expensive education. Plus, until you ahve tenure, you can never be certain of a job for more than a year or two, and will need to travel regularly both in the job, and just to find work.

Financial firms and large corps. are sucking good researchers out of the university system. For those that are motivated by the material gain available in those organisations, allowing them to exploit a tiny fraction of their work keeps them producing the rest of their work for everyone else. There was a great quote on here a few weeks agoa long the lines of 'There are plenty of scientists, the government just isn't willing to pay market rate.' Allowing spin-off companies and the exploitation of some research is one way that the universities can keep those scientists within the system.