Patente
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Beitrag von Johannes vom November 02. 2000 um 10:34:58:
Ich dachte, das Folgende wird bestimmt einige interessieren, schließlich berührt es ja auch den Export von Software aus Europa:
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 an 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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