PC Manufacturers See Piracy As A Hidden Benefit, Says id Software

Todd Hollenshead, CEO of id Software (think Doom and Quake), accuses PC hardware manufacturers of implicitly supporting piracy of all kinds because they see it as a “hidden benefit” when you buy a PC. This came up in an interview with Gamesindustry.biz, and was part of a larger point aimed at answer the question of why PC manufacturers aren’t doing more to stop piracy with hardware measures. When asked if these companies are secretly happy about piracy, Todd says:

Yeah I think they are. I think that if you went in and could see what’s going on in their minds, though they may never say that stuff and I’m not saying there’s some conspiracy or something like that - but I think the thing is they realise that trading content, copyrighted or not, is an expected benefit of owning a computer.

That’s a very interesting point, albeit a bit one-sided seeing as it comes from a content (in this case games) maker. There’s the trusted computing push, which has resulted in manufacturers shipping systems with “Trusted Platform Modules” which includes BIOS support at the root level. But will manufacturers use this to lock down their systems so people won’t be able to pirate games or watch episodes of Burn Notice they torrented? It’s unlikely, because of the huge user revolt that would follow. [GamesIndustry.biz via Wired - Image Credit]