Microsoft Patents Ones, Zeroes
Gates attempts to patent everything software
Above: At a press conference beamed live to Microsoft shareholders around
the globe, Bill Gates announces the company's patenting of the binary
system.
March 26, 2001
Web posted at: 11:53 a.m. EST (1653 GMT)
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 chemists on a
chemical-based message-transmission system. Hewlett-Packard is
developing a revolutionary new hydrogen-powered printer.
Despite the swarm of protest, Gates is standing his ground, maintaining that
ones and zeroes are the undisputed property of Microsoft.
Above: Gates explains the new patent to Apple Computer's board of
directors.
"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."
Overheard: "Gates' salary also has lots of zeroes. He's the richest man in the
world, and is about to get a lot richer."
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 program using such mathematically rooted functions
as addition and subtraction.
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 largest software company,
Microsoft is the zeros. And you, the millions of consumers who use our
products, are the ones."
cnn.com:sci_tec@3520040376/new_010325/alert/break... |
