Not-patenting a (practically, not legally) patentable algorithm doesn't come easily to academic researchers these days. The authors deserve kudos (unlike the rapacious Michael Luby, fountain code inventor) for trying to make sure people can use their algorithm sometime in the next 20 years.
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Best of all, the authors seem to have somehow evaded MIT's IPR office. (Shh!) At least, I get squat for the lead author, Maxwell Krohn:
https://www.google.com/search?tbo=p&tbm=pts&hl=en...
Not-patenting a (practically, not legally) patentable algorithm doesn't come easily to academic researchers these days. The authors deserve kudos (unlike the rapacious Michael Luby, fountain code inventor) for trying to make sure people can use their algorithm sometime in the next 20 years.