Digital Revolution
“What? James Augustine? Why the hell is that guy involved?” Steve and Gates erupted the moment they heard James had been called as a witness. They remembered the name of the team leader they had fired all too well—the man whose reverse-engineering of ID Office had wiped out every scrap of data in the Alpha Lab.
James had been exceptionally talented. Yet he hadn’t been dismissed for a single careless mistake like the Alpha Lab incident. A long string of smaller errors had accumulated until they finally exploded that day. Even the usually patient and employee-friendly Steve had chosen not to intervene, and for good reason. Still, after years inside the Alpha Lab, James knew Microsoft’s secrets inside and out. If he opened his mouth, the fallout would be catastrophic.
“Contact James immediately! Stop him from testifying!”
“We’re already trying, sir.”
“If he won’t listen to reason, wave that confidentiality agreement in his face!”
“Yes, sir. I’ll move on it right away.”
Gates played the bad cop while Steve played the good cop—that was standard operating procedure for Microsoft’s top brass. But the James situation was different. This trial had moved far beyond a simple sales injunction. The stakes now included massive damages—damages that had ballooned from a few hundred dollars to a staggering one hundred million. If the court ordered Microsoft to pay that sum, the company might not survive. Worse, losing the trust of retail consumers and major partners would mean even the best software in the world would fail to generate revenue.
Secretaries and lawyers scattered from Gates’s office like startled birds. Only Steve remained, and silence settled over the room.
“How did we end up here?” Gates muttered.
When they had fired James, they had been confident they could replace him with someone better. He had been capable, but his careless words and conduct had caused too many incidents. Steve hadn’t stopped the dismissal. After James left, the new Alpha Lab team leader had indeed been more skilled. Under his direction, the final stages of Windows 3.0 development had accelerated, and by incorporating the strengths of Android Alpha, they had produced a far more powerful graphical operating system than originally planned.
They had felt safe firing James because of the confidentiality agreement. Revealing Alpha Lab secrets would trigger enormous penalties—more than enough to deter most people. That agreement had protected them through previous dismissals, and they had assumed it would work again. But what if ID Technology stood behind James? The company’s financial resources were formidable. A penalty payment would be trivial to them.
“We need a countermeasure,” Steve said.
“We do. The best move is to disqualify James as a witness entirely.”
“Agreed. Did he take any evidence when he left?”
“No. We didn’t even let him keep a single floppy disk or notebook. We gave him a small severance and sent him out empty-handed. There shouldn’t be any problem.”
Gates and Steve were once again in perfect sync. Their discussion on neutralizing James’s testimony proceeded smoothly.
The trial between ID Technology and Microsoft once again captured the media’s attention—this time because of the new variable: James Augustine. He was no ordinary witness. Until recently he had worked inside Microsoft’s most sensitive division, the Alpha Lab. Every detail of his background, his potential testimony, and his connection to ID Technology filled newspapers and broadcasts.
Microsoft’s strategy was clear: destroy James’s credibility. His reasons for being fired and every past misstep were leaked to the press in rapid succession. ID Technology did not stay silent. They highlighted the stress James had endured while carrying out Microsoft’s dirty work, the lack of proper compensation, the abrupt dismissal over a common mistake, and the terrifying confidentiality agreement used to silence him.
Microsoft’s media dominance was immense, yet ID Technology’s growing influence could not be ignored. Amid the fierce battle of narratives, the hearing on Wednesday, December 6, finally convened with James as a witness.
Yoo Jae-won felt genuine regret. The trial had opened ten days before winter break, preventing him from flying to the United States to watch in person. Fortunately, Remington and Ellen provided detailed reports on preparations and daily proceedings, allowing him to follow the atmosphere through the documents.
The December 6 hearing was the highlight. From the opening moments, Microsoft’s legal team launched a relentless assault on James.
“The witness, James, harbors strong resentment toward Microsoft. He believes he was unjustly terminated. Therefore, nothing he says can be trusted. He holds negative feelings toward Chairman Gates and President Steve, does he not?”
Microsoft attacked James’s character before he could even begin his testimony.
“……Yes.”
After a brief hesitation, James Augustine nodded. Murmurs rippled through the gallery. Agreeing here meant conceding that his testimony lacked credibility.
“Common sense says I should deny it. But when I took this witness stand, I swore to tell the truth. That is why I am stating my feelings honestly—and why every statement I make from now on will also be the truth.”
James was not naturally eloquent, yet years of accumulated stress at Microsoft had sharpened his tongue.
“Your Honor, while the witness’s adherence to his oath is commendable, I must remind the court that he may be exploiting that oath to launch attacks against Microsoft, the very company he resents.”
Microsoft’s lawyers continued their character assassination, dredging up every mistake James had made during his employment and even twisting a forgotten receipt into an accusation of embezzlement. James clenched his jaw and endured in silence. ID Technology’s attorneys could only object when the attacks strayed too far from the case or became irrelevant, but to observers it looked as though Microsoft was on the offensive while ID Technology remained purely defensive.
The tide shifted when ID Technology’s counsel took their turn.
“Did Microsoft’s leadership order you to engage in unfair competition?”
“Yes. Chairman Gates gave the direct instruction. They inserted code into the MS-DOS 4.0 memory management system file to detect ID Office. When detection occurred, the code deliberately mishandled memory block returns to increase instability. The code was written with extreme complexity so that even reverse-engineering would struggle to uncover its true purpose.”
“Your Honor, we submit statistical evidence regarding the fatal errors that occur when running ID Office under MS-DOS 4.0, compared against the stable performance under MS-DOS 3.3. This clearly corroborates the witness’s statement.”
Ellen presented the evidence. The judges’ expressions darkened at the mention of new evidence—until they saw it was only five pages of A4 paper, mercifully brief.
“This is absurd! The claim of Chairman Gates’s involvement rests solely on the word of an unreliable witness!” Microsoft’s lawyer shouted without waiting for permission to speak.
“Furthermore, the new memory management features in 4.0 simply exposed compatibility issues for unprepared developers. Errors appear in other applications as well, not only ID Office. The witness himself admits reverse-engineering cannot easily detect the mechanism. If all future testimony follows this pattern, it will only prove that James Augustine took the stand to vent personal grievances against Chairman Gates and President Steve. Moreover, his statements violate the confidentiality agreement he signed upon joining Microsoft. Once this testimony concludes, he will undoubtedly receive a lucrative offer from ID Technology—and they will cover any penalty for breaching that agreement.”
Microsoft’s lead counsel spoke with polished fluency. His high fee was apparently justified. Yet when he mentioned the confidentiality agreement, James’s eyes changed.
“Yes, Counsel. As you said, my current statements do violate Microsoft’s confidentiality agreement.”
Before ID Technology’s lawyer could object, James spoke first. By admitting what he was expected to deny, he left the judges leaning forward with interest rather than interrupting.