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Valve Cracks Down on 20,000 Users
An anonymous reader writes "Valve have disabled 20,000 steam user accounts belonging to users who have been caught using a pirated version of the game, or have attempted to use a cdkey to bypass the securom protection found on the retail version of the game. The Steam Forums have been swamped with people now claiming they are unable to play, many claiming they have had their accounts disabled for no reason. A Valve spokesman says, 'The number of people who actually had bought HL2 and used the CD key cheat was VERY small. VERY small. Most people just tried to rip off the game and not bother buying it.'" People are discovering that when you buy any product that is subject to "activation", you haven't really bought anything.
Is there a way to disable the "feature" that forces me to load the CD every time I want to play the game? And will doing so get me banned? Why can't steam disable this annoying problem after we activate our game and prove to them that we bought it? At least there is a hack for Doom 3 and other newer games that disable the CD check without getting you banned from the network.
I wonder all the hassle about the activation. My Steam-version of HL2 worked fine from the preload to the ending credits. It serves them right to have accounts banned if you tried to use pirated cdkey etc.
Although I wonder also why would anyone use their OWN account to try playing a game they didn't pay for. And the version I know of, pirated I mean, doesn't need the activation at all...
-Is the meaning of life vanity, or is vanity the meaning of life?
So you believe you'd have no problems buying a game and then using someone else's CD key? Hah!
And yes, the box DOES state that you have to have a working account on their Steam network.
Fact of the matter is, there's no excuse to pirate this game, and Valve took the logical step that they can to protect their property. Don't even try to front like you've got any ethical ground to stand on.
and it's still working ok... Am I lucky or it's only a question of time?
Anyone else still playing with... err... pirated HL2?
(And don't give me that crap "oh, bad you, pirate! go sit on a corner". Hurl the first stone those who have NEVER pirated a piece of software!)
> People are discovering that when you buy any
/. in a long time;
/. in a long time.
> product that is subject to "activation", you
> haven't really bought anything.
OK? That's the stupidest thing I've read on
No, actually what you wrote is the stupidest thing you've read on
The vast majority of the population have no clue about how digital restriction management can be used to take away something that they think they own. Whether they "stole" it or not does not matter here.
What matters is that more than 50,000 people just learned that their continued use of a product that they thought they owned (after all, they have posession of it, like a car) is in constant jeopordy of someone pressing the big red stop button.
Should Valve go under and their steam network be turned off, all legit purchasers of half-life2 will be in the exact same situation that these suspected pirates are today. People who paid for divx dvds are in the same boat already, they just weren't widespread enough for the lesson to make an impact.
Maybe this time the lesson will have an impact, especially on the teenagers of today who will be the ones who have to live in the DRM-ruled world the copyright cartel envisions. Maybe the fact that people have paid money for something that could disappear in an instant leaving them no recourse, will sink in enough on these kids that they will decide that the next product, be it music from the iTunes store or WMV-HD DVDs with "phone-home" DRM or the entire MS "Trusted Computing" baloney is not worth their money.
A free market requires education and Michael's comment is exactly the kind of education that the masses need to avoid a DRM-ruled world.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
In Minnesota you have 3 days to return any item, in it original purchased condition, to the place of purchase and recieve a 100% refund. One exception to this rule that I know of opened software cannot be returned in Minnesota under any circumstances.
There is or can be built a machine that can simulate any physical object. -Church-Turing principle
Will Valve pay me for the time i spent in going out and buying their product?
Will the grocer give you a discount because you had to go to the trouble of getting to the store?
How about for the hassle of sending it back and getting my money?
Yeah, a phone call and a stamp are a big hassle.... you're just lazy
How about for the time i spent reading the whole EULA?
Will they pay me for the legal costs incurred in having a lawyer read the whole thing and explain me the legal implications of the EULA (Since it's unlikelly that a layman can fully understand the meaning of the EULA)?
uhm... yes... they should pay you for reading the document that tells you what the rules are for using their property... and the government should pay you to read the entire governiing document for wherever you may live
Do i have a full lifetime guarantee that i can give it back if have never installed their product and disagree with the License Agreement?
No, that's just idiocy on your part if you do such a thing
No, they won't pay you for these things... but there is no reason for them too... get it, read the EULA if you wish, and then return it if you don't like it... the return process will probably take no more than 30 minutes, if you have to wait a long time and then have to go buy the necessary stamps or whatever. It's been this way for a long time... only now you actually have to play by the rules.
Game Overdrive - Gaming News
"And yes, the box DOES state that you have to have a working account on their Steam network."
This is a lie. It says you have to have an Internet connection.
You can't just dictate whatever terms you want to people. They'd like ot pretend you have a contract with them. No, sorry, it's not. A contract requires an exchange of things (goods, money, whatever) and requires both parties to agree and sign. Saying "You agree by opening the box" isn't valid. Also contracts must be open to negoation. If you are leasing an apartment and disagree with a clause in the lease, you can strike it out, inital the change, and send it back to the management company. They are not required to accept these changes, but they have to negotiate it.
IANAL, but one of the first things taught in Business Law 101 is how basic contracts work. There is no requirement to offer, accept, or negotiate a contract. If I make an offer, you are certainly allowed to make a counter-offer (what I assume you mean by negotiating) but now my original offer is void. Also signing is not required for contracts, only certain types of contracts.
If you buy a piece of software, and it says that you agree to whatever terms by opening it (and purchasing it, which you have already done), then the deal is complete when you open it. If the terms are not available before you open it, obviously nothing is binding. These days its more often done as part of the installation. If you change the terms of a lease and send it back, you are correct that they do not have to accept it, but they also don't have to ever talk to you again (or accept a subsequent unmodified lease that you send them, since its now void).
This is not the greatest sig in the world, this is just a tribute.
Half-life 2 uses a MMO style activation where you create an account and enter your key. One account, one key. Once a key is registered to an account is cannot be used on any other accounts. The only thing that could possibly happen people getting their steam accounts hacked.
I suspect the people complaining fall into one of two catagories. They purchased the retail game and got pissed that they had to insert the CD everytime they started it while people who bought it over Steam don't so they downloaded a nocd crack.
Somebody bought it retail and also installed it at their friends house and had their friend login with their Steam account and used a nocd crack to allow their friend to also play.
In the first case it sucks to be them as they got screwed over by Vivendi in needing to use authenicate with a CD, and felt screwed over that online purchases didn't need this.
For the second case they were committing piracy, and well it really sucks to be them, but they were pirating something with activation. They took the risk and lost.
Save yourself now.
Either purchase or steal the full version of Adobe Acrobat, or any other software that allows you to print PDF's.
All of my tax returns get printed to PDF's then to paper as nessecary. I don't normally keep the paper copies around for more than a year, but it's easy to keep an encrypted zip file contianing those precious documents.
People laugh at PDF's but they are really convient, and can be read over long periods of time without dealing with MSFT's change the format per minor version games.
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
As much as Microsoft and the other big software companies would like you to believe, EULA's are non legally binding documents so in essence you did purchase the product.
You need a notary to witness you sign it or a laywer present for a real contract document.
Unless you specifically sign the document in writing with a notary or Lawyer present as a witness its non valid.
No one has ever took a software company to court over this its currently a gray area.
Big businesses who buy corporate licenses actually have lawyers and notaries present so the licenses there are valid.
Just because the CD is copyrighted does not mean you own your purchase.
Most places like CompUSA will charge you a 15% restocking fee or will refuse to let you return it since the package is opened.
You may want to read the news with retailers refusing returns if you return items frequently. That is another penalty that will happen as a result.
http://saveie6.com/
And for the last time you do not have to agree to the GPL to use GPLed software. The GPL is a license to distribute the software. It gives you something over and above the rights you already have with copyright, as opposed to EULAs, which take some away.
If the GPL were invalid SCO would still have every right to use the software themselves, just not to distribute it.
Did you even try and look for these answers? I had exactly the same ones and found them out VERY QUICKLY:
"If I download the game and my hard drive crashes, can I reinstall it via Steam to a different hard drive?"
Yes: I want to move my Steam installation to a different disk or computer, how can I do this?
"Can I install it to more than one computer if I only play one at a time (ie my desktop machine and my laptop)?"
Yes: Can I use my Steam account on other computers?
"Does it cost anything to have a Steam account other than the initial cost of the game?"
No: " Is Steam really free?
At least try and find these things before bitching the information is not available... that took me longer to cut and past the hrefs than it did to find those answers....
All you had to do was go to Support and type your question. I've had no problem with downloading all the Steam content onto my computer, then copying it over to my brothers (he only has dial up)... and that was it. He now has and is playing HL2, and when he is done with it, I just fire up Steam and away I go... it's already there for me to play. Excellent stuff!
Specifically, from their court ruling,
So unless Valve lawyers are going to try to challenge the district appeals court, The individual own that copy. I can smell the lawsuits in the works.
frob
//TODO: Think of witty sig statement