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Valve Announces Half-Life 2 Code Theft Arrests
Ant writes "GameSpot and other sources report arrests were made:
Developer of the much-anticipated and delayed shooter sequel reveals an international wave of arrests has been made.
The Half-Life 2 code theft saga entered a new chapter today when Valve Software announced a series of arrests had been made in the case. According to Valve, suspects in several countries had been taken into custody in relation to charges stemming from the theft of the Half-Life 2 code, distribution of the code, and breaking into Valve's network..."
now that these criminals have been caught, can Valve release Half-Life 2? pretty pleeeease?
The Google News link just shows the link again to the Gamespot link.
Do the submitters (or the editors) ever check to see what's in the links?
Wow, well looks like half life 2 should be out any second now that they caught the perps....
o' wait no this is an excuse for another 2 year delay!
Half Life 2 Timeline:
(Presale)
(Delay for break in)
(Presale)
(Delay for prosecution)
(Cancel Project)
The Article
The Half-Life 2 code theft saga entered a new chapter today when Valve Software announced a series of arrests had been made in the case. According to Valve, suspects in several countries had been taken into custody in relation to charges stemming from the theft of the Half-Life 2 code, distribution of the code, and breaking into Valve's network.
Valve CEO Gabe Newell credited gamers with providing the information that led to the arrests. "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," he said in a statement. "Everyone here at Valve is once again reminded of how much we owe to the gaming community."
However, while Valve announced the arrests today, it was unclear when they actually occurred. Valve's statement on the matter--e-mailed to the press today--quoted Newell as saying, "within a few days of the announcement of the break-in, the online gaming community had tracked down those involved."
The FBI's Northwest Cyber Crime Task Force, the law-enforcement agency overseeing the code theft investigation, also divulged little information. When asked by GameSpot if it had made any arrests, media contact at the task force's Seattle, WA, headquarters said simply, "we did." However, when pressed for more information on the case--i.e. how many people in the US were arrested, where were they apprehended--the agent declined to say anything other than arrests had been made. "Beyond that we can not comment," he said.
News of the Half-Life 2 arrests comes after months of rumors about law-enforcement activity on the case. In January, a number of computer experts in the San Francisco area reported having their hardware seized by FBI agents on the grounds they were involved in the theft. Several weeks ago, unconfirmed reports from Germany said the author of the Phatbot Trojan worm was also involved in the theft. In both instances, neither Valve nor the authorities offered any comment.
GameSpot will have more details on this developing story as they become available.
There is or can be built a machine that can simulate any physical object. -Church-Turing principle
.. come on people, we've been wanting to play it for months.
I know I have ever since I saw the 600MB or so MPEG of the demonstration at a computer fair (I forget which).
Oh the agony.
Delphis
When they noticed that the code was stolen Vlave officials had this to say:
"OMG haxor"
"Several weeks ago, unconfirmed reports from Germany said the author of the Phatbot Trojan worm was also involved in the theft. In both instances, neither Valve nor the authorities offered any comment."
For a moment, this made me wonder if Valve and others, including microsoft (lower-casing/deprecation intentional) routinely insert trojans into their source code so that it can lie dormant, awaiting the "Wake UP! Report your location" code.
Is it plausible that companies paranoid of losing their IP during or after development cycles would insert code that has to be "shut down" to prevent "sounding the alarm"?
This is what I mean: Rather than inserting into beta or gold or release software some passive code that waits to be polled, instead the code has to be periodically shut down.
Of course, if a technical person ran a packet sniffer to find out what or whether their copy of the software was leaking burst signals "to call home and report its location", there'd likely be some serous, umm, serious hell to pay.
On the other hand, I guess I don't personally have a problem with such a scheme, since I'd rather have a legit, unique, assigned-to-me authorization code. But, if the software does NOT enforce a unique code, then I have to suppose the maker or disributor secretly wants maximum diffusion or user exposure in the hopes that the users will "come clean" or go legit.
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
*looks around sheepishly* *slowly raises hand* It was a very bad joke, but sadly, still funny. :)