Re: BSD license
"(even for software which patent lawyers refuse to admit is not patentable because it [is] a branch of mathematics)"
Anything can be expressed mathematically.
Mathematics is a collection of thematically connected, artificial, highly symbolic languages, so claims that something is "a branch of mathematics" are equivalent to claims that something is "a branch of French". If you can express a concept mathematically, you can express it in any other language. That's what languages are for.
Despite repeated attempts by many in the IT industry to imply otherwise, programming really is just a branch of translation. Nothing more, nothing less.