Put another way: if someone was going to be developing an algorithm that does anything remotely like what this algorithm does, the legal advice that that person

Put another way: if someone was going to be developing an algorithm that does anything remotely like what this algorithm does, the legal advice that that person's institution would give them would be to not read anything about this particular algorithm. Like, don't even visit this web page or participate in this thread on HN, because doing so exposes a legal attack surface for future litigation. That's how effed up this is, it's inexcusable.