FSF has now filed an amicus brief in Bilski, and they too ask the Supreme Court "to affirm that software ideas are not patentable":End Software Patents (ESP) executive director Ciaran O'Riordan explained, "Every software patent is a restriction on software developers and users of computers, and there are currently 200,000 software patents in the USA. As well as being an unjust restriction on a common household tool, time has now also proven software patents to be an economic failure and a hindrance to the progress of the useful arts. This means they've failed their constitutional mandate and have no legal legitimacy.