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Microsoft
Copyrights the Semi Colon
In a move expected to have far-reaching impact, Microsoft today
announced
that it had successfully copyrighted the semi-colon.
Hereafter, the ";" will be
replaced by ";©". In a prepared state-
ment, Mr. Jose Fuentes, chief
technical
lawyer for Microsoft said:
"Microsoft has today successfully copyrighted the semi-colon...
While some may
decry the removal from the public domain... of
a standard keyboard and ASCII
character, in fact, few in any non-
technical writers use the semi-colon. Those
who do so.. use it in-
correctly... The major use of the semi-colon is confined to
the C
and C++ programming languages... and frankly most people who
work in
those languages are employed either directly by, Microsoft
or through subcontracts. The subcontracts will be written to
miti-
gate the impact of the user
fee, to be established in the near future."
While he did not elaborate, sources close to Mr. Fuentes have intim-
ated that
the user fee will be determined on a per- use basis of the
semi-colon... and is
expected to be approximately 0.061 cents per use.
The same sources would
not comment on rumors that Microsoft is
pursuing copyright action... on the
parentheses. |
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