Half-Life 2 Warez Crackdown

[CSN NewsBot]

If you are seriously considering downloading Half-Life 2 through illegal means, do expect quite a fight from Valve Software. The following is a response from Gabe Newell when being addressed on the topic of pirated HL2 copies:

We're running a bit of an experiment. We're keeping track of the accounts that do this and will be shutting them off.

In other words, Valve has launched their very own "warez" version of their pride and joy whose purpose is to nail down those pirates out there. Thus, if you do not wish to plunk down $50 or so for one of the most riveting games of this year, the joke's on you, friend.

[KSKG|Ph03niX]

FUCK U VALVE!!!1111!!



No but gj

[Gpig]

I didn't like HL1.



HL2 is the best game on earth however!!1



PS. The combine needs some training videos about not hiding behind explosive barrels.

[gumplunger]

Kudos to Valve on this. I imagine the feeling of having something stolen from you and not being able to do anything about it is quite a burden on game developers and Valve taking it into their own hands is quite admirable.

[JawKAtaNa]

nice...

[emazing]

I admit pirating is wrong, but I'm willling to bet that almost everyone who posts here has pirated software. It seems kind of hypocritical if you ask me. Do people really believe that other developers don't put their effort or time into their software?

[ma_cherie]

Gpig wrote..

PS. The combine needs some training videos about not hiding behind explosive barrels.

Hahaha, that's so true.



Good job on this Valve, I'll openly admit to downloading other software before but I bought Half-Life 2 on Steam the day you were able to.

[Mobius?]

myg0t = owned

[/2etribution]

Heh, this is just like what they did with VAC back in the spring. I like the take-charge attitude over there in Bellevue.

[mathyou]

Good luck to Valve in this regard. God knows they'll need it. The game rocks. People should pay for it. But warez fellows are mighty crafty.

[VuLLrath]

rofl... pub nub hackers gonna get owned.

now all we need is the ultimate vac system to permantely ban hackers so they cant rejoin through diff ip, email, and cd key. its like you ban a hacker from your server he rejoins with diff steam id (aka cd key) so u have to ban his ip... then he rejoin with diff ip and your like wow gay faggot leave my server alone.



vac should use the same program that forum admins use to ban people.

it logs the users ISP location. like im verizon dsl @ tampa florida then has the ip after location. if they banned that then there is no way the faggot hackers can rejoin your server or steam, enless they change isp's and that would take way longer then using hacks. (and be expensive for their idiotical mommies and daddies to pay)



hl2 mods like cs source dod source and soon others better not have any gay lame speed hacking wall hacking back flip flying hacking aimbot terminator controllible bullets hacking bs.



hackers and stealers are lame period. if your to poor to buy a game or even TRY to play it legit, then you have no skill and your just a pub nub cal-o wannabe skinny pathetic weakling that gets his ass handed to him in - not only online life, but real life as well.



Ò_ó <^> to hackers and pirates!



btw, its easy to make money just mow lawns, walk some old geezers dog... make 200 buck in one week. pub nubbers.

[bLaCKaT]

The funny part about this story, is I saw nothing from those comments that suggested that Valve had released a leaked version of the game. Which they probably didn't, they are probably keeping track of the steamid's who log in with the cracked version.

[b3dlaM]

good. god damned cheapos try to download this quality software, its down right insulting to Valve. They put all this time, effort, and money, into producing this work of art, so to speak, to be enjoyed by all for only a mere 50 bucks, and people just crap all over it by illegally downloading it. I say drop $50 and keep the good times coming.

[Snakebyte]

bLaCKaT wrote..

The funny part about this story, is I saw nothing from those comments that suggested that Valve had released a leaked version of the game. Which they probably didn't, they are probably keeping track of the steamid's who log in with the cracked version.

That's exactly what I was thinking...

[Scanner]

Heh, not too often that I read a story about CS/HL2 on Slashdot before I come here and see it (/. thread here). Anyway, the forum junkies there brought up some interesting legal issues such as:



Gabe doesn't come out and say that they released the Warez version, just that they're keeping track of people who use it. If they did release the Warez version, then have they officially given people who download it permission to use it as a legal release, and therefore should take no action against those who use it?



If Valve didn't release the Warez version, how are they "tracking the accounts" of the people who use it? Are they just monitoring the IPs of people who download the torrent and then trying to match them up to Steam users' IPs? (This seems problematic). Or have they found some unique signature in the cracked version that they can check for at authentication time?



--Scanner