Information technology researchers often assume that good research will lead to deployment in the Internet of new systems based on that research. Universities often assume that the principal barrier to deployment is the transition from research idea to prototype. In this talk, I will argue that these assumptions are often incorrect, and that deployment based on good information technology research is often stymied by a combination of economic and legal issues that were not considered in the research. I will present three case studies: quality-of-service, IP interconnection, and device attachment. We will discuss whether the manner in which each was deployed coincides with the original research vision; what factors may have resulted in perturbations from the original vision; and whether these perturbations are in the public interest. I will encourage information technology researchers to pay attention to what is in the public interest, to the interests of the parties that may implement the idea, and to whether these interests coincide.