he also got the US military to pay for the R&D and to make the results of all the research in the public domain. he got into a big fight with Einstein over whether or not they would do experiments at IAS (Einstein only wanted to do math and theory there)
"Differences over individual contributions and patents divided the group at the Moore School. In keeping with the spirit of academic enquiry, von Neumann was determined that advances be kept in the public domain. ECP progress reports were widely disseminated. As a consequence, the project had widespread influence. Copies of the IAS machine appeared nationally"
"Differences over individual contributions and patents divided the group at the Moore School. In keeping with the spirit of academic enquiry, von Neumann was determined that advances be kept in the public domain. ECP progress reports were widely disseminated. As a consequence, the project had widespread influence. Copies of the IAS machine appeared nationally"
from: https://www.ias.edu/electronic-computer-project