A GamesIndustry.biz interview with id Software’s Todd Hollenshead took an interesting turn yesterday. Amid talk of QuakeCon and Valve’s Steam content delivery service, the id CEO shared peculiar views on the subject of PC game piracy. Hollenshead had this to say when asked how PC makers could stop copyright infringement:
There’s lots of things that they could do but typically just they just line up on the wrong side of the argument in my opinion. They have lots of reasons as to why they do that, but 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.
The interviewer went on to ask, “You think [PC makers] are secretly happy about it?” Hollenshead said he does think so, although he took care to add that he doesn’t believe in an industry-wide conspiracy. “But I think the thing is they realise that trading content, copyrighted or not, is an expected benefit of owning a computer,” he added. (Thanks to Shacknews for the tip.)