We've received word from Valve that arrests were made in several countries in relation to the theft of the Half-Life 2 source code, which occurred late last year.
"Within a few days of the announcement of the break-in, the online gaming community had tracked down those involved," said Gabe Newell, Valve's CEO. "It was extraordinary to watch how quickly and how cleverly gamers were able to unravel what are traditionally unsolvable problems for law enforcement related to this kind of cyber-crime."
Thousands of tips were received related to the criminal activities, with a core group of people who were able to analyze and backtrack from these clues. Subsequent to these individuals being identified, Valve has been working with various national authorities to prepare cases against those involved, leading to these arrests.
"It was very uplifting to see how the community rallied and tracked these people down. Everyone here at Valve is once again reminded of how much we owe to the gaming community," added Mr. Newell.
Huzzah!
WOOHOO!:)
now lets all peg rocks at those responsible.
Now will they release the game? :|
Wow, what heroes. If Valve, a computer gaming company, isn't smart enough to protect it's intellectuall property, they deserve this crap. Lawyers, doctors, scientists, coporate executives, and all sorts of less technologically inclined people can do, and these morons can't? What a bunch of sissies. They announced they would release it, what, back in December? Then the source code got stolen, and they decided it would be a bad time to release their game. This makes sense, since everyone who was planning on playing game no longer had 2 options *buy the game, download the warez), they had 1 (download the warez). GJ Valve. Not only that, but they seemed to halt development altogether. No new screenshots, trailers, or even announcements have been made since the theft. They just locked themselves in the closet and cried. What freaks. And then the fanboys cheer because the bad guys got caught. Well guess what Jimmy, that source-code got put on a little bit of software called Kazaa back When it Was Free. Now everyone and their grandma already has it. So pointless. HL2 will never be. In fact, until I played the source code myself a month or two ago, I was convinced Half-Life 2 was a hoax (It was on a friend's comp, spaz, don't bother sending my IP to the CryBaby Police).
Ummm, all companies where like Valve. They didn't have a great security, but when valve was attacked all other companies increased security. Its just the fact that Valve was attacked is what made other companies secure. It couldve happened to other games, but Half-Life 2 is the most anticipated.
lol moot, u wanker
all i got to say.
Moot, you took bollocks, in no way was the source code good. and the **** wits over at Kazaa had a section of game not even complete (besides kazaa is one of the main site people use to hack other peoples computers and release viruses), also the release was premature, and because of the further delays Half-Life 2 will be a game that wont die. If u read about Valve after the code theft you would have found out that almost every concept artitst and freelancer pull out of the Half-Life 2 project when the source code got stolen, they also had to rebuild parts of the game and ensure security was in place for the game itself, so aresewupes like you dont go ******* around trying to compramise other innocent peoples computers and systems.
With Half-Life coming very close to completeion now its beyond testing this will be the game no-one will ever forget, and no one will ever put down, including modders, developers and other industries.
oh yeah Half-Life 2 will rock. Wont ever put down HL2 and DOOM3 ;)
Dear Moot:
"If Valve, a computer gaming company, isn't smart enough to protect it's intellectuall property, they deserve this crap."
This type of thinking really makes me pity you, for it shows how you view life in general. Nobody deserves to have such things done to them, and saying such takes responsibility away from the perpetrators. It's like saying because we all don't walk around in kevlar vests, we deserve to be gunned down. That's a very distorted outlook.
Dear everyone:
The E3 videos look phenomenal, and really gives you the sense of the immersive, gritty, susenseful, action-packed gameplay that will give every other game out there a serious run for their money. I just hope they're able to release it this summer, so us mod developers have what we need to continue our projects.
Rock on :bang:
Moddb.com
"It was very uplifting to see how the community rallied and tracked these people down."
those snitchs! ;)
"Lawyers, doctors, scientists, coporate executives, and all sorts of less technologically inclined people can do, and these morons can't?"
When was the last time a hacker TRIED to steal video game source code that a lawer, doctor, scientist, or corporate executive had written?
"No new screenshots, trailers, or even announcements have been made since the theft."
You must have been under a rock in a cave for the last couple of months then... they released a trailer showing the start of the game, when Gordon just entered City 17. They also announced that it's very likely that they'll be shipping the game this summer.
Weee, thats great news!
I'm not sure whether I should be annoyed or amused by comments such as that by mr_moot; I think what I feel is a strange combination of both... annoyed and sad that there are actually people that can be so naive and immature (and that unfortunately some people will believe his ridiculous claims), yet still amused because his comments bring some humor to this whole situation ("Half-Life 2 will never be." - :P good one!).
I also find it kind of funny that there always seems to be /one/; every news item I see about this issue seems to have /one/ person making a comment or comments like that, but the other people who would have potentially done the same thing must realise its not such a good idea, judging by the response to such juvenile behaviour. But please, don't be shy - post what you think; we could all do with a laugh!
That said, although I feel sorry for Valve that this happened in the first place, I don't believe that people should be harshly penalised - if at all - for simply having a copy of the leak. Yes, the cumulative effect of such sharing of the leak may well have adverse affects such as keeping the leak in circulation longer, but I'd be willing to bet that most people who obtained the leak's actions were without malice, and therefore they should not be targets of justice for this crime; the people involved in actually leaking the software in the first place are the ones largely at fault.
What I've seen of Half-Life 2 so far through screenshots and movies is very impressive, along with some other games coming out soon, like Doom 3, STALKER etc; this breach should fade to nothing but a memory after the game is released and will hopefully cease to effect Valve as it has up until now. I think theres a lot we can all learn from this incident - developers and gamers alike - and we should be careful not to waste that opportunity.
Cheers,
-jEFF
Moot seems to hae muted
Don't mess with HL2, even not in real life...
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Moot, they didnt release it because is not done, and we all know what happens when you release a game thats not done *cough* battlefield: vietnam *cough*
finally.
w00t BaD-cOmPaNy just committed no less than FIVE double-post offences!
Me thinks we need some forum protection against accidents like that :P
your views are absolutely crap.
"Not only that, but they seemed to halt development altogether. No new screenshots, trailers, or even announcements have been made since the theft. They just locked themselves in the closet and cried. What freaks"
are you on crack?? did you not follow the development or at least view some of the stuff that comes out of E3??? i think its you who is the one who locked themself in a cupboard and cried, because there is no way you could have missed all of the new content being shown of many large name sites (Gamespy, PHL, Gamespot, Bluesnews etc etc..). Next time do you bloody research before you go shooting your mouth off on what is a very good thing to happen to the games community. you little POS. Grow up and then come back.