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I'm a person who oppose all kind of software patents. any use of software patents is a patent troll (if you have patent, you should have a clear patent policy that it's for defensive purpose).

According to the case of Bilski, patents should involve a machine, otherwise it's invalid. But trolls don't care of their patents are invalid, because of how patent cases are handled in courts

http://www.groklaw.net/articlebasic.php?story=20081102011538...

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Your political stance doesn't change that what you wrote is simply wrong. They did not get a patent for the Fourier transform but for something completely new which no one thought of before.

Fraunhofer would not have developed audio compression if they couldn't earn money with it (they are a non-profit by the way and the money earned funds new research). That's their business model. They have novel ideas, do hard work to make them possible, and sell that to companies. Are you suggesting people shouldn't get paid to do their work?

Algorithms are the machines of the 21st century.

The court rule in Bilski case, does not agree with you. You can't patent math. It's not my political stance, it's the law. You are not supposed to patent formulas.

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