Video Games Get Trashed

Now that PCs can be turned into PlayStations, the Internet is flooded with free--and illegal--games

Here's a scene that should warm the heart of any executive in the video-game industry. It's a muggy Manhattan morning late last June. Liam McLaughlin, 23, a full-time games bootlegger, opens the door of his Bleecker Street co-op to find three armed U.S. marshals dressed in SWAT gear, and four suits from the Interactive Digital Software Association, a sort of Pinkerton agency for games manufacturers. The marshals have a warrant. Can they come in and look at his game collection? McLaughlin, it transpires, has been making copies of more than 250 CD-ROM game titles for the Sony PlayStation. He's been selling...

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