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Valve Cracks Down on 20,000 Users

Posted by michael on from the third-degree-burns dept.

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.

5 of 1,942 comments (clear)

  1. Re:CD hack? by RomSteady · · Score: 5, Informative

    From what I understand, if you uninstall Half-Life 2 after activating it on Steam, then install off of Steam, you won't have to use your media anymore.

    Admittedly, you'll have to download quite a bit of data and it's a pain in the rump and it might not work after their next patch, but that's what's been going around the message boards.

    --
    RomSteady - I came, I saw, I tested. GamerTag: RomSteady / http://www.romsteady.net
  2. Re:CD hack? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative
    Too bad PC users don't also have this [disc images]option


    Actually, PC people do have this option using software such as Alcohol or Daemon Tools (which is free for private use). This is why the newer CD checks refuse to allow you to run if you have these programs installed. In fact, I've heard of cases where the game refuses to run if you have Nero, a very popular CD/DVD burning package and rumors of games which won't work if you have a burner attached. If the Mac ever takes off, you can kiss your disc images goodbye or find a www.MacGameCopyWorld.com.

  3. Re:You're wrong. by realdpk · · Score: 5, Informative

    "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.

  4. Re:No lemon law in Minnesota by -kertrats- · · Score: 5, Informative

    I live in Minnesota, and you actually can return opened software here, but you must trade it in for a new copy of the same product; no cash refunds.

    --
    The Braying and Neighing of Barnyard Animals Follows.
  5. Geeze, at least TRY and read the online docs by spoco2 · · Score: 5, Informative

    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!