id Software, the studio behind iconic titles like Doom and Wolfenstein, once engaged with pirates in Taiwan by selling them empty "Doom" boxes at a significantly reduced price. This unconventional approach was part of the company's strategy to ensure widespread distribution of its shareware games in an era predating ubiquitous internet access.
John Romero, a co-founder of id Software, shared this anecdote during a panel at QuakeCon. He explained that the shareware model for Doom, where the first chapter was free and subsequent episodes required purchase, was often exploited by resellers. These individuals would sell the free shareware version, even though it was intended for promotional purposes. Rather than opposing this, id Software encouraged it, with Romero stating, "Please do it. Don't give us any money. Just get it out there."
Romero elaborated on the situation in Taiwan, noting that the studio was aware of extensive copying. To legitimize these unofficial distributions, id Software reached out to major pirate operations. "So we contacted the biggest pirates there and went, 'Can you buy boxes from us? Really cheap. Really really cheap.' So they bought tons of boxes off of us, so it would be legitimate," he said. The company profited when players purchased the full game, not from the shareware distribution itself. Romero considered this practice a form of distribution, especially given the limited access gamers had to software via Bulletin Board Systems (BBSes) and the expense of long-distance calls required to access them. Owning a modem was also a rarity at the time.
This philosophy extended to id Software's approach to copy protection. Romero stated that the studio did not implement copy protection, viewing it as a