REDMOND, WA--In what CEO Bill Gates called "an unfortunate but necessary
step to protect our intellectual property from theft and exploitation by
competitors," the Microsoft Corporation patented
the numbers one and zero Monday.
With the patent, Microsoft's rivals are prohibited from manufacturing or
selling products containing zeroes and ones--the mathematical building
blocks of all computer languages and programs--unless a royalty fee of
10 cents per digit used is paid to the software giant.
"Microsoft has been using the binary system of ones and zeroes ever
since its inception in 1975," Gates told reporters. "For years, in the
interest of the overall health of the computer industry, we permitted
the free and unfettered use of our proprietary numeric systems.
However, changing marketplace conditions and the increasingly predatory
practices of certain competitors now leave us with no choice but to seek
compensation for the use of our numerals."
A number of major Silicon Valley players, including Apple Computer,
Netscape and Sun Microsystems, said they will challenge the Microsoft
patent as monopolistic and anti-competitive, claiming that the
10-cent-per-digit licensing fee would bankrupt them instantly.
"While, technically, Java is a complex system of algorithms used to
create a platform-independent programming environment, it is, at its
core, just a string of trillions of ones and zeroes," said Sun
Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy, whose company created the Java
programming environment used in many Internet applications. "The
licensing fees we'd have to pay Microsoft every day would be
approximately 327,000 times the total net worth of this company."
"If this patent holds up in federal court, Apple will have no choice but
to convert to analog," said Apple interim CEO Steve Jobs, "and I have
serious doubts whether this company would be able to remain
competitive selling pedal-operated computers running software off vinyl
LPs."
As a result of the Microsoft patent, many other companies have begun
radically revising their product lines: Database manufacturer Oracle has
embarked on a crash program to develop "an abacus for the next
millennium."
Novell, whose communications and networking systems are also subject to
Microsoft licensing fees, is working with top animal trainers on a
chimpanzee-based message-transmission system. Hewlett-Packard is
developing a revolutionary new steam-powered printer.
Despite the swarm of protest, Gates is standing his ground, maintaining
that ones and zeroes are the undisputed property of Microsoft. "We will
vigorously enforce our patents of these numbers, as they are legally
ours," Gates said. "Among Microsoft's vast historical archives are
Sanskrit cuneiform tablets from 1800 B.C. clearly showing ones and a
symbol known as 'sunya,' or nothing. We also own: papyrus scrolls
written by Pythagoras himself in which he explains the idea of singular
notation, or 'one'; early tracts by Mohammed ibn Musa al Kwarizimi
explaining the concept of al-sifr, or 'the cipher'; original
mathematical manuscripts by Heisenberg, Einstein and Planck; and a
signed first-edition copy of Jean-Paul Sartre's Being And Nothingness.
Should the need arise, Microsoft will have no difficulty proving to the
Justice Department or anyone else that we own the rights to these
numbers."
Added Gates: "My salary also has lots of zeroes. I'm the richest man in
the world."
According to experts, the full ramifications of Microsoft's patenting of
one and zero have yet to be realized. "Because all integers and natural
numbers derive from one and zero, Microsoft may, by extension, lay claim
to ownership of all mathematics and logic systems, including Euclidean
geometry, pulleys and levers, gravity, and the basic Newtonian
principles of motion, as well as the concepts of existence and
nonexistence," Yale University theoretical mathematics professor
J.Edmund Lattimore said. "In other words, pretty much everything."
Lattimore said that the only mathematical constructs of which Microsoft
may not be able to claim ownership are infinity and transcendental
numbers like pi. Microsoft lawyers are expected to file liens on
infinity and pi this week.
Microsoft has not yet announced whether it will charge a user fee to
individuals who wish to engage in such mathematically rooted motions as
walking, stretching and smiling.
In an address beamed live to billions of people around the globe Monday,
Gates expressed confidence that his company's latest move will,
ultimately, benefit all humankind. "Think of this as a partnership,"
Gates said. "Like the ones and zeroes of the binary code itself, we must
all work together to make the promise of the computer revolution a
reality. As the world's richest, most powerful software company,
Microsoft is number one. And you, the millions of consumers who use our
products, are the zeroes."
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