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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