My perl doesn't do that.

[johnsca@CORY johnsca]$ perl -wle 'print %!'

[johnsca@CORY johnsca]$ perl -wle '*c=*!; print %c'

[johnsca@CORY johnsca]$ perl -wle 'use Errno; print %!'
ECOMMOEPIPE ...(etc)
[johnsca@CORY johnsca]$ perl -wle 'use Errno; *c=*!; print %c'
ECOMMOEPIPE ...(etc)
[johnsca@CORY johnsca]$ perl -v

This is perl, v5.6.1 built for cygwin-multi
...(etc)
[download]

And I get the same results for my ActiveState Perl 5.6.1.

bbfu
Black flowers blossum
Fearless on my breath