"I think that there's been this dirty little secret among hardware manufacturers", said id Software CEO Todd Hollenshead. "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."
Mr. Hollenshead voiced his opinion that hardware manufacturers take advantage of that perception of free content to increase their hardware sales. "What they [hardware manufacturers] say is one thing, but what they do is another", he said. "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."
Mr. Hollenshead's argument certainly looks convincing, but the truth remains that the open nature of the PC leaves very little for hardware developers to control software piracy without affecting legitimate software.
