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id CEO Claims PC Hardware Manufacturers Love Piracy

Posted by Soulskill on from the arrrrdware dept.

arcticstoat sends a link to an interview with the CEO of id Software, Todd Hollenshead, in which he suggests that hardware manufacturers count on piracy to help drive profits, rather than doing something to prevent it. Quoting: "...I think that there's been this dirty little secret among hardware manufacturers, which is that the perception of free content — even if you're supposed to pay for it on PCs — is some sort hidden benefit that you get when you buy a PC, like a right to download music for free or a right to download pirated movies and games. ...And I think that just based on their actions...what they say is one thing, but what they do is another. When it comes into debates about whether peer-to-peer file-sharing networks that by-and-large have the vast majority, I'm talking 99 per cent of the content is illicitly trading copyrighted property, they'll come out on the side of the 1 per cent of the user doing it for legitimate benefit."

3 of 676 comments (clear)

  1. Nothing to see here... by perlchild · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Every other content owner makes a similar attack on fair use. The content owners should never get a license to ban the legal trading. What this amounts to is an attempt to get out of the onus of proving the content is infringing in the first place, on a case by case basis. "We're not allowed to kill off fair use, so you must all be pirates"

    I'm sorry mister producer, but the law says you have to prove infringement, and please, let's see you just caring about the infringemetn of your product, we'll deal with the other producer later. Cartels be damned.

    OF course, at that point he'd have to admit the size of his potential market, and maybe he'd prefer a canadian-style tax on removable media.

  2. Re:What a secret! by T3Tech · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Years ago, when I lived at home...

    So you no longer live at home now? Taken up the nomad lifestyle, eh?

    --
    Of course I didn't RTFA... why would I do that? You really are new here aren't you? Don't let my UID fool you.
  3. Re:Simplest solution to stopping "piracy" by FishWithAHammer · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    LOL. Feeding the troll, but what the hell.

    Let me break it down for you using simple words so you are capable of understanding: the product is still being maintained, so an ending copyright is stupid.

    Get me?

    --
    "You can either have software quality or you can have pointer arithmetic, but you cannot have both at the same time."