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id CEO Claims PC Hardware Manufacturers Love Piracy
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."
...pirating id's stuff.
No, the creator doesn't have a financial incentive to patch and maintain a product unless it didn't work to begin with. If it provides
I love ACs. So very furious and angry, yet completely unable to read a post.
"You can either have software quality or you can have pointer arithmetic, but you cannot have both at the same time."
But you're gaining something without the right to do so. You are profiting, in terms of enjoyment (a benefit to you), without compensating the creator. Hence the moral wrong you are committing.
"You can either have software quality or you can have pointer arithmetic, but you cannot have both at the same time."