Slashdot Mirror
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.
You have purchased something. A license to play the game on the terms and conditions that are told to you by the company.
If you violate the terms and conditions, the company can suspend or revoke your license to play the game.
They do not owe a refund to you if you decided to violate the agreement.
Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
I know that a lot of people will have huge problems with this.
I still don't see why though- most people knew about Steam going in (everyone who tried to use the crack knew about Steam).
Someday, circumventing copy protection won't be seen as a white-hat activity. But it will be seen as people trying to cheat others out of compensation for their work.
No reason to lie.
seems like someone may have slowed down the pirates for a little bit...
People are discovering that when you buy any product that is subject to "activation", you haven't really bought anything.
Except...these people didn't actually buy the product, did they? No, they stole it. I don't see what the problem is.
This space intentionally left blank.
I can understand someone who bought a real copy of the game using a no-cd crack so they don't have to have the CD in all the time (I do this for most of my games - I HATE having to swap CDs all the time), but using a cracked CD key? There really doesn't seem to be an excuse for this.
Welcome to the world of tommorow!
"People are discovering that when you buy any product that is subject to "activation", you haven't really bought anything."
Uh, yeah, actually. I BOUGHT THE GAME. I didn't use a stolen key, because I ACTUALLY PAID FOR IT. And I have zero problems.
Puh-lease. Don't even try to slander Valve here, they're so on the ethical right on this they've got halos appearing over their heads right now.
And anyone with half a clue and that can do basic logic realizes that down the road Valve will eventually just patch the game to run without connecting to Steam. Especially if the network itself is in danger of dying for any reason.
My Linux Command of the Day site : LCOD
...that they have no clue how many legit customers were affected.
Just don't post crappy editorial comments like this:
/. in a long time; so Valve decided that to attempt to crack down on piracy (and it's not as if we haven't seen lots of leaked games) they would force "activation" of the product, even for single player use. Boo hoo, and now some people got caught trying to stiff Valve. Cry me a river. Valve is a for-profit business selling a piece of closed-source software.
> People are discovering that when you buy any
> product that is subject to "activation", you
> haven't really bought anything.
OK? That's the stupidest thing I've read on
In other news, michael buys car and is shocked to discover must buy gas for it continue working.
John.
So, you try to pirate Half-Life 2, and they lock you out from playing it... That's all well and good. But if you've got other products you've legitimately purchased through Steam you can no longer access those either because you tried to pirate Half-Life 2? That sounds like a great reason to never use Steam. If you ever do something they disapprove of with one of Valve's products you could lose access to hundreds of dollars of software that is completely unrelated.
Why aren't they just blocking those users from Half-Life 2 instead of revoking (shall we say "stealing" since they like to mis-use the word too) ligitemately purchased licenses for other products too?
Go valve. Please deny acces to everyone who hasn't paid for the game. And then go on to deny access to everyone who cheats. I couldn't care less about people who stole a product being denied the ability to use what they stole.
I bought Half Life through steam and was pleasantly surprised by how smoothly it went. I was expecting a nightmarish problem judging by Valve's earlier problems with network security.
However, regarding activation. Maybe if so many people in the "community" weren't so busy pirating the games Valve wouldn't need to go through these hoops.
What I'm more concerned about overall is, what happens when people have their steam accounts stolen? How is Valve going to deal with that. I could probably use Visa to get my $59 back, but what a tremendous pain in the ass.
Oderint dum metuant
It's their product. Why can't they say what they want how they want? Clearly there are enough people (like myself, who bought it over Steam and has been enjoying it with no issues) that could care less if a bunch of pirates (that don't deserve to play anyway) get booted and talked to harshly. It is AGAINST THE LAW, don't they have a right to be pissed?
We are one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively. Back to you with the weather, Bob!
Use a cracked game, one which you didn't pay for, and then whine when you can't play.
Awwwww.
How about putting a crowbar in your wallet and actually paying the developers/programmers/distributors for their efforts.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
I bought HL2 the day it came out. The steam servers were so swamped that it took me over 2 hours to get the damn thing activated. Frankly, I do find the idea of being treated like a potential criminal every time I launch the game offensive. It's like having a store run a criminal record check every time you wander in to buy something. I'm not going to argue about the license - Valve certainly does have a right to protect their interests, but I'll certainly think twice once I see any product using Steam as a prerequisite to using it. They can do what they like, and me and my money just won't get involved. (btw - the post above about still needing the damn CD is right - what the hell for? If anything good could have come out of Steam it would have been able to stop having to swap CD's back and forth).
I'm glad that Valve is 'cracking skulls.' Mess with the bull and you get the horns buddy.
In all seriousness, Valve is an intelligent company and has most assuredly been very careful about this. Of course there are going to be mistakes, but out of 20,000 warez a**holes there's probably only a very VERY (to quote Valve) few people who actually purchased the game and then for some reason went out and grabbed a key generator when they didn't need one.
That's very likely 20,000 less cheating bastards at Counter-Strike Source (leaving on a few million to deal with.)
Loading...
So, what happens in 5 or 10 years when you want to play the game and can't install it on a new machine because Steam is gone or has been replaced? I understand their attempt to thwart piracy, but perhaps they should try a different approach. Perhaps innocent until proven guilty?
Wooden armaments to battle your imaginary foes!
What happens if I buy the game on ebay that somebody already played. Will steam not allow me since it's already registered to the previous user? More importantly what happens when VU shuts down valve and steam B/C profit margins aren't high enough or some other BS reason, and there are no servers to validate my copy? I don't want to buy a game that might not work in a few years.
SmashTech - No smashing of tech involved
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.
EULAs try and do many things that are just unenforaceble. Basically they want the best of both worlds. They want it to be a physical good when it suits them, but a licensed product when it suits them. Doesn't work that way. When you sell a product on the shelf, with no contract signing, you are selling a good. Things like the doctrine of first sale apply, even if you write an EULA that says they don't.
This is different from something like an MMORPG. Here there are two parts: the good and the service. The game they sell you is a good, and you are welcome to keep it, even if you never use it online. Their servers, however, are a service, you pay for the right to use them. Being a service, they can put restrictions on that without a contract, since if you don't like it, you are free not to use the service.
Think if the logic Valve applied here was applied to a physical good, like a dishwasher. You go and pay for it up front, no contract, and take it home. Then, one day, it stops working so you call for warentee service. They say "Oh no, it's not broken, we just deactivated it. See you violated your license for using it, so we are turning it off. You'll need to go buy another one if you want to use it."
That's how stupid this shit with the software is. It's not a service, it's a good. You are purchasing it with the expecation that oyu are able to use it as such. You can use it in any way you like, reverse engineer it, resell it, whatever. All you can't do is make a copy of it, or a derivitive work. Those are copyright infringement.
Either way, I hope it blows up in their face. I can gaurentee I will not be buying a copy as a result. I'll stay with the Unreal Engine series, as Epic aren't assholes about things like this. Likewise, I'm recommending to all my friends that they do not purchase it.
Should such a time come when Valve wises up and gets rid of this retarded protection, I'll reconsider, but at this point, there's no way they are getting my money.
Let's turn this around, shall we?
If you come to my home and steal my silverware, you may not come back. I really don't care if the last time you came over you didn't lift my wallet. Doesn't matter... you are simply not allowed in my home again.
Of course, I know someone will point out the obvious "but" in this... so let's address it now, shall we?
You came into my business, rented time on one of my computers and then copied licensed software from my system. You are not welcome back. I don't care if you cam in last week and didn't copy anything... I don't want you as a client. You are a risk because you can't keep your grubby little fingers where they belong -- in essence, out of my cash drawer.
I've pirated a few games in my time.. and when a patch comes out and when I am no longer allowed to play it over the net because I am out of date, or they move to make some restriction that stops the juwarez monkeys from playing their game I don't bitch about it.. I accept it as the flip side to being able to play the game early or for free. Tough shit if I was too cheap to fork out the money for it!
Kudos to Valve for having the balls to try and tackle the root cause of the problem.. combine cutting out the publisher and a pretty darn secure way of delivering games to people and we might yet actually see a reduction in game prices. They are hopefully setting the trend - combine that with not needing the CD to play the game either, and you have a winning combination IMHO. Not quite sure whats gonna happen though if my broadband net connection goes off for some reason?
For the record I purchased the bronze package (cheapass I know.. never mind) about 10 minutes after Steam pricing packages were made available, and then at about 30 seconds past 'zero hour' when they were supposed to have enabled the HL2 authentication servers I closed and reopened Steam, unlocked HL2 and was playing in about 10 minutes.
The game is awesome. I finished it this weekend and loved every minute of it.. those who haven't tried it thanks to some irrational fear of Steam or something really need to get over it and try it out.. you ARE missing out by not playing this game. Its the new benchmark quite frankly.
"Hey! Unless this is a nude love-in, get the hell off my property!!"
"Is there a way to disable the "feature" that forces me to load the CD every time I want to play the game?" Yes, you buy it on Steam. CD keys are a byproduct of a retail/in-box game. Valve came up with an entire system so you never need a CD again...
And of course, here we are bitching about it b/c we can't pirate it.
Before the DMCA, I did it all the time. I do not own a big harddrive for no reason. One of the reasons to have it is that I can do a full install of all the games I get (though these days most games require a full install). I want to install it, put the CD back in the box, and not worry about it. It seems really stupid to me to have to give it a CD so it can do a little check just to let me play. Hence, I'd crack the game so that it would just run.
Of course that's not legal anymore, than's to the DMCA, but it still is in the rest of the world and you can see why peopel would want to do it. I don't really care that people also use cracks for illegal purposes, something shouldn't be illegal just because it has an illegal use. MOST things that have legal uses also have illegal uses.
You said "People are discovering that when you buy any product that is subject to "activation", you haven't really bought anything." OK, let's play this game "You bought a product license, you haven't really bought anything". That's not a true statement: You buy the right to use the product, which is the good you paid for. It may not be the good you THOUGHT you paid for, but then again, you do read the end-user licenses, right? All product activation does is enforce the license. Oops...you don't want license enforcement. That's fine. Find another game then. The market will decide if this technology is a good idea or not.
Umm...more likely, people are discovering when they steal a product with product activation, they haven't stolen anything useful. And later, when they try to cheat playing Counter-Strike, they'll find they can't play anymore. All in all, I don't see the problem here. I quit playing CS a long time ago because of the repeated wallhacks and other cheats, even though I found the game very entertaining. Part of the license compliance that's enforced by Steam is also enforcing anti-cheat measures. I'm 100% in favor of features that keep the playing field honest. And if it gives the guys at Valve more money, well, as far as I'm concerned they've earned it.
Unlike the vast majority of the people here who don't like Steam, I actually do believe in giving people money for what they produce. I think people deserve to be compensated for their work. I don't think you have the right to deprive people who want compensation for their work of that compensation. And I think the "but I don't like swapping CD's" argument is thin, at best, and more likely it's an outright lie. It's a stupid argument all the way around. If you want to listen to a CD while you play the game, CD-ROM drives are what, $20? Here's a nickel, kid, buy a real computer.
Fine, but the thing is you don't know that until you open the damn box. This is the root of the problem. You go purchasing a game, you purchase a game, come back home having purchased a game and find out you actually got a licence agreement instead.
Again, this is fine on Steam. It's not on a boxed game.
People are discovering that when you buy any product that is subject to "activation", you haven't really bought anything.
What the hell do you expect them to do then Michael? Is Valve just supposed to put up with tens of thousands of people playing their game without paying for it? So does this mean I can find some way to hack the Slashdot premium membership database and just start giving away premium memberships to whomever wants one? Would that be OK with you?
I understand that activation probably isn't the best method to handle this problem, but right now what's the better solution? This isn't some enterprise-level database you can just open source and start charging for support. Nobody needs a maintenance contract for HL2. A company like Valve has to try and keep their product from being blatently stolen.
Actually, the ideal solution would be for everybody to be honest and buy the games that they play! But instead, people have the attitude that they have the RIGHT to have something that they have not paid for. This leads to a few possible outcomes.
1) The company does nothing. They loose sales. Bad for them.
2) The company builds in DRM. This causes consumers to complain. Bad for us.
3) In addition to the DRM, the company lobbies for laws cracking down on "copy technology." Of course, these are a "BFG-900" which, in addition to having some affect on the pirates, has the side-effect of causing a lot of collateral damage do the honest consumer. Bad for us.
4) The company does what Valve did and disables cracks. The is another "BFG-9000" which hurts the pirates, but also causes some collateral damage to a few honest users. Users complain, bad for us. They also get a black eye in their reputation. Bad for them.
In short, if they do nothing, they are screwed. If they do something, everybody complains and they may be screwed (depends on how much people complain).
To those who pirate games: If you don't like DRM and the DMCA, look in the mirror for the reason that we are stuck with those. If you want to change the world, start with the only person that you CAN control: yourself.
"-1 Troll" is the apparently the same as "-1 I disagree with you."
Doesn't matter how many are in each camp. There is a legitimate use, and that legitimate use should be protected.
www.kitchengeek.com -- Nosh for
"I have little sympathy for people stupid enough to used a CD-Key hack on a legit copy of a product they bought."
I'm operating on the assumption that "CD-Key hack" means circumventing the need to have the !$$%^! CD in the drive to launch the game. If that's not the case, nevermind.
However if it IS the case, then yes I think blacklisting those few legit users is obscene. I'm ALL for screwing the warez pirates, but "CD in the drive" copy protection is little more than punishment for the legit owner. It's downright natural to want to disable it.
And as one of those who even pays for all their shareware, I've been penalized more than once when I couldn't run my legit software because the CD was unavailable (traveling, or across town and an unexpected opportunity for LAN play arises.)
And all the while I was thinking how the warez crowd wouldn't have that problem, only legit users. That sucks. Makes no sense whatsoever.
You can prettify it all you want. The bottom line is that there ARE people who bought the game and are unable to play it because Valve has decided to ban them based on the fact that they don't want to put in the CD-ROM every time they play the game. You're welcome to proselytize for the strict EULA advocates, but this is the kind of thing that discourages PC gaming. People spend long periods of time installing multiple gigs of data on their PC and then the asshat publishers/developers force you to have the CD-ROM handy anyway. Then, Valve uses their "Steam Power" to screw over people who don't want to follow a really stupid rule - note that they didn't just re-patch to evade the crack but instead prevented even legitimate players from using the game. Every time someone pulls something like this it's going to disillusion a PC gamer and they're going to be that much less likely to buy the next game.
You own the media, nobody's taking that away from you, its yours. There aren't FBI swooping down on you to confiscate that 'property' of yours.
As for books, once again its the media that you own. If you illegally reproduce that media, then you can expect to be punished.
For those downloading and installing cracks, etc.. then expect for your account to be banned. If you mod your satilite digital box, expect to get banned, if you uncap your cable modem, expect to get banned.
I am use that you can view every one of these service's EULA's before you buy the them. Hell, I bet that if you ask, they'd even mail a copy to your door.
Bye!
I will not purchase HalfLife 2 at this point. I had intended on purchasing it in a few weeks (after a system upgrade). This Steam thing puts all the cards in the hands of Valve. If they miss identify behaviour on your part, they can literally "unsell" hundreds of dollars of software in the blink of an eye. Now, of course, they will not refund your purchases, they will gladly keep that. I do not condone the theft and use of Valve's software, but I also am getting really tired about the "terms and conditions" that companies are giving themselves. Software should be treated no differently than any other form of purchase. Companies should not be able to give themselves super-judge powers, that in the blink of an eye can undo all purchases which have been done with that company. Kick the illegal software out, most certainly. But also kicking out legally purchased software, is not right.
Why all of the whining about having to have the CD to play the game? How is this different than buying a GameBoy game? You have to have the GB cartridge to play the game. So, you have to have the CD to play the game. No different than GB, and I don't see hundreds of whining comments about that....
A house divided against itself cannot stand.
Does it say on the box that you must have a working internet connection to play the game? Just curious.
How would the game authenticate itself without said internet connection? And is the game playable without authentication?
It's not a lie. It's the truth with lossy compression.
The trouble with product activation is that it's implemented in such a painless and convenient way (in the majority of cases, where it works properly) that people fail to see this process for what it actually is: repeatedly asking permission from the manufacturer to use the product you purchased, after you purchased it. It seems the process is too automatic, too obscure not only for Joe User, but surprisingly, technically literate Slashdot readers who you'd normally expect to understand abstract threats to their freedom.
Perhaps if people had to actually speak to the company and say the words, "could you please activate my software?" and say it a few more times for other software packages, and a few more times after reinstallation, it might hit home. Perhaps if they had to wait on hold for thirty minutes, desperately seeking permission to use the software they purchased, it might sink in. Perhaps if, in a fit of nostalgia they decide to reinstall an old game only to be dismayed they can't play it because the activation system no longer works and no patch is available, they will get the message.
Indeed, whenever I've had to phone Microsoft to activate Windows XP, or Intuit/Reckon to activate Quicken, it's not the annoyance of being put through a five minute exchange of serial codes that sticks in my mind, but the more profound emotion of resentment of being put in that situation in the first place. I resent having to obediently request permission to use something I'd spent hundreds of dollars on. I resent having to repeatedly ask permission during the life of the product, according to criteria set by the company. I resent not knowing if I'll still be able to use the software a few years down the track. I resent that many of my friends, who paid nothing for their pirated/cracked copies, don't have to suffer the same indignities or worry about such things.
The most important issue about activation is not whether it's convenient or inconvient, but the way it fundamentally changes the relationship between the customer and a company selling proprietary software. For the life of the product, the customer is now dependent on the company to repeatedly affirm the most basic right of any software user. Not to peak at the software's source code or modify it, but simply to run the program they purchased legitimately.
It's very different. The entire game is on my hard disk, and only works after I authenticate a valid key with Steam. Why the hell should I have to dig out the CD? People who bought the game directly on Steam don't have to deal with that.
And suppose you could take all of your carts and load them into memory on your GB. How would you feel about still needing to haul the carts all over the place when the data already exists in the box?
-R
Why dont companys just put ultra fine print on the box that says.
Why should it be ultra-fine print? What do they have to hide? Aside from that, I wouldn't have a problem with them making it available online. Just as long as they understand that some or all of their EULA may not even be valid where I live, and they should not be allowed to take action against me by removing my right to play the game if I violate unenforceable portions of the EULA. Now they could refuse to sell the game to people that live in places that won't enforce parts of the EULA, but that's up to them.
It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer
The law of Unintended Consequences predicts:
Valve will loose more legitimate purchases than the number of illegitimate users it has banned. This will happen due to alienating consumers with it's tactics.
Quote from a person who had his account banned:
"on my account i had over 200 dollars worth of legit software. in the consumer world they cant just take it away form u. its like stealing."
Apparently Valve "like stealing" his supposed legit software is verboten, but him straight out stealing HL2 is a-okay. Thats sound logic to me! Whatever. One less asshat to deal with in C-S.
"You, Socrates, are breaking the covenants and agreements which you made with us at your leisure, not in any haste or under any compulsion or deception, but having had seventy years to think of them, during which time you were at liberty to leave the city, if we were not to your mind, or if our covenants appeared to you to be unfair."
... if you don't like/agree with the rules as we ALL pretty much know them to be at this time, do not purchase the game/license/vapor/whatever. I think the number of people who disagree with these kinds of measures is probably ridiculously low compared to the number who won't purchase based on these tactics.
Now that we know, put your money where your mouth is and don't play the game. If you do purchase, I don't see how you can argue that you disagree with the method Valve is using.
But the game itself is woefully overrated. I'd say, "Off to eBay with this," but who knows whether HL 2 will work if it has to be reactivated by a new owner?
HL 2 suffers most from being broken and from a fundamentally bad design choice. The STUT-STUT-STUT-STUT-STUT-STUTtering of dialogue at the start of virtually every new scene is something Valve will have discovered in testing, but obviously (and arrogantly) shipped anyway to get Xmas sales. The Source engine has big memory management problems.
Then there are the long, painfully slow load times, one coming every 10-15 minutes, and lasting around 60 seconds. Levels are split at arbitrarily unidentified points, so you never know when you're going to get hit with another minute-long delay--or make that 2-3 minutes, if you decide you want to go back to explore or find supplies.
HL 2 definitely has moments of brillliance. Fighting giant striders is interesting, and skimming along water reservoirs in your Road Warrior-style craft is fun for a bit. But it is far from being the masterpiece that the sold-out gaming press has blathered on about.
Honestly, if you don't want to deal with activation, don't use the product. End of story. Free Software will surely produce a game of HL2 quality before you die.
The better analog is to have a Gameboy game that requires you to have the box in hand whenevre you want to play. In short, an annoying physical vestage of the game that makes no sense to keep otherwise.
When you install a game on the PC, it copies all media to the PC itself (generally). In this case why are you required to ALSO have the game CD?
For HL2 this is doubly an issue. Because the game material you get via CD is the same encrypted stuff you get via Steam - only in the case of STeam you have no physical CD, so it doesn't require one to play. The HL2 CD should be treated as a much faster download from Steam, and then things are the same after that.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Wait a year or two and when it's in discount bin and working no-activation crack has been released, then buy it. Good games don't get old. If you suspect it might get old then maybe it isn't very good afterall.
Maybe FarCry2 or 3 or something else will be better. You just don't know. But you can bet that you'll know whether HL2 is any good after waiting a year, without even trying it out first.
Preserve old classics: copy your collection onto all hard drives.
Honestly? It's a game. You purchase a license permitting you to play said game. Some people pirate it and then get their accounts killed. If you buy a legitimate copy and follow the directions, I don't honestly see how you could get banned. Then again, the people who are whining are the ones you used a NO-CD crack, or using an outright illegal copy. Go Figure. The people who whine the most are the people who don't like paying for things. Oh wait... this is SLASHDOT, not Fark.com. What am I doing here?
Who the hell are the whiners complaining that you're account was terminnated because they circumvented copy protection and/or stole the product? Are these people INSANE? Who on earth thinks it's okay to steal something, have someone take it back, and then feel like you've been cheated?
It's like looking at the sky and flat out refusing to say it's blue. Come on, people, fork over the $50 to buy the game and support the people who BUILT IT so you can enjoy it.
How many games per year do you buy? Is $50 really that much for a game? It's not.
"Politicians find new names for institutions which under old names have become odious to the people."
Why all of the whining about having to have the CD to play the game?
You obviously don't own a notebook and spend half of your weekends away from home. I do.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
Say it as much as you want, but you're still wrong. For all practical purposes they are completely different. In one case, a person has been deprived of the possession and use of an object. In the other case, they have not. How you can say that for "all practical purposes" these two are equivalent, I can't understand.
I'm in agreement with you that both are unethical, but they are definitely not equivalent. We draw much, much finer distinctions than this in the legal system. Consider manslaughter vs. murder.
With a PC, I install the game, play the game, install another, play it, and repeat until I run out of disk space. Then I've got to work out which game I won't be playing in the near future, uninstall it, install another one, and I have to start juggling installers. If I don't want to do that, I need to open up my PC and fit a new harddrive.
The difference? Installing the game before you play it. If GB games needed installation, I'd definitely not be interested; who wants to install a game before you can play it, just because you've uninstalled it to fit something else on? And if PC games didn't need the CD, I'd be more interested; at least I wouldn't need to carry all the CDs around.
I appear to have a blog. Odd.
I think the point our poster is trying to make is that traditionally, we have not been beholden to companies to consistantly affirm the right and (in most cases) ability to purchase, execute, and run applications purchased. People do make a good point.. (What if company A is absorbed by Company B.. there are no promises that Company B will uphold your ability to use that product.. if they don't.. then your X dollar purchase just became void. Not so bad with a 50 - 100 purchase.. but when you are talking in the thousands and hundreds of thousands... it makes a BIG difference).. Or company A decides that in addition to whatever initial provisions are made to use the software, you now have to activate it via this SPECIFIC ISP.. (not such a far fetched idea as lets be honest.. everyone need to do what they think will enable them to survive and grow)
Lets also be clear here.. yes, there are some indivduals for whom all software (in their eyes) is to be free. But the percentage is VERY small relatively speaking. Most users agree that talent (and the firms that represent them) need to be compensated. (if this were not the case, valve would have just enforced a purchase online policy and there would be no shrink wrapped issues.. (its significantly cheaper for them to do so..)
What we are seeing here with this activation trash is the notion that they might loose 3 cents to the 5 people that did not purchase the software over the 5000 that did.
I believe there have been numerious studies from our dear friends at the RIAA and others which, dispite their cries, show that those 5 people don't make a bit of difference in their profits..(in fact, in many cases they help in the "advertisement" of the product itself).
Personally, I refuse to make use of any product (hardware or software), regardless of method or means, that forces my use down a path that THEY enforce. This is a personal choice so lets not start flaming here. For others, they choose to wave that right (ie: choice) in favor of doing what they wish to do..
But I do have a problem with the masses that hand over their supposed rights (little tested as they are) in favor of the simple rewards they think they have.
Of course, that is just my 2 cents.
God made the Idiot for practice, and then He made the School Board -- Mark Twain Look for http://Thebar.steelbeachca
I hate to break it to you guys, but not all companies are the same.
"Duh, but what happens when the servers go down?!". Well, we're talking about a company that releases game source for their products for people to modify. I'm pretty sure that Valve is more likely than anyone to release a "No-Steam" patch if they went out of business, just like they released a solution for WON being removed (remember that? HL1 had to log into a central server that doesn't exist anymore for multi, yet you're still playing that)
This is ignoring the fact that they'll be alive for at least another 5 years unless they blow all their money on coke, and that YOU CAN PLAY THE GAME OFFLINE ALREADY! So really, there's *no* situation where you won't be able to play the game.
What's funny is that the people the most pissed off about it haven't even bought it or don't know the facts behind it. I mean, it's way less restrictive than Apple's DRM on ITMS, for starters. I guess they're pissed that there's no Linux port and need a way to vent. It's okay. We understand.
I once had this book that had a lock on the outside of it. Every time you wanted to open the book, you had to insert this dumb little key. It was like a diary or something.
... nobody would take the book back cause it was opened.
One day I had this bright idea to use my scissors (sp: dmca violating device) to cut the lock off so I didnt have to insert that dumb key all the time to open it. Imagine my surprise when I notice that the ink on the paper had all disappeared!
0h nos! My w3rdz 4re b33n st0l3n!
Now I cant read the book, it's as good as a doorstop. I called the publisher, and they said "Hey, man, you only bought a license to read the book IF you use the key to open it! Even if you glue the lock back on, you still lose, space cadet!".
But they didnt count that you couldn't see that it was a license until you unlocked it the first time, and there on the first page was "By opening this book, you have agreed that..."
It was really sad... I dont think I'll ever get over it.
Video meliora proboque deteriora sequor - Ovidius
You are purchasing a CD, which does not give you the right to play the game, but does save you time in downloading it from our system. Whether you purchase this CD or download the game from our system, you will be required to log on to our system and pay us $45 before you will be able to play the game, and you will be required to connect to our system every time thereafter that you wish to play the game. If for ANY REASON, we decide you shouldn't be allowed to play anymore, we will revoke your ability to play the game and you WILL HAVE NO RECOURSE. If our servers ever become unreachable, you will lose your ability to play the game and you WILL HAVE NO RECOURSE.
I think that's fairer than selling someone a box for $50 and delivering essentially the same thing, but the purchaser doesn't know what they have agreed to until AFTER spending $50 non-refundable (or at least it is likely to be very difficult to get a refund) and then only if they understand convoluted legalese.
Alternatively, have the sales jerk/clerk EXPLAIN the agreement every time someone buys it... nah, I think that's asking too much of your average retail clerk.
Of course I also think anyone who would agree to either Valve's agreement or the one I suggest really needs to think about where this is all heading... This is a bad trend, it will spread to movies & music, and the best way to stop it is to refuse to purchase this stuff. I know, it hurts that you can't play the latest game, but if everyone said no, they'd license it differently. Find another game, nearly as good but with a better license, and play that.
Disclaimer: I do not own (nor do I play) HL2, and do not anticipate I will do so ever.
I have purchased no less than 3 counter strike games - each from regular retailers and each came with CD keys. Why 3? Well so me and friends could play legitimately on my T1 at my home. ./ and learn of this mess, 20k users banned - and you know all are not valid bans, the forums closed because of all the negative postings, basically the entire community is in rebellion. S.O.B I was right to begin with and should have never spent $50 for such total bullshit.
Imagine my shock and horror when I try to play one day and receive a message that my steam account has been closed because I am using a cracked CD key. 3 F'n times I have paid, and I'm denied access to play to game.
Then along comes Half Life 2. I refuse to buy it in principal and because of my previous experience. But the reviews are too good. "It's the best game ever, again." Not to mention my IRC chat buddies calling me a moron because I object to steam.
OK, I give in and buy it. What do I get? The first CD cant be read because of the imbedded copy protection. It takes over 4 hours to install as I go through 4 CD-Rom drives until I find one that will read the disk. An hour to "decrypt" the files, WTF?
I play it - and indeed it is good.
Today I read
But, who do I blame? Is it valve/vivendi's fault? NO. IT IS THE LAME ASS COPYRIGHT STEALING IDIOTS THAT CAUSED THIS PROBLEM TO BEGIN WITH.
Two Days ago I read with disbelief incredible responses saying how walking into a movie theater with a video camera and then posting the movie on the internet is an OK thing to do. Some idiot even associated it with free speech.
There is an incredible "steal it if you can" culture here that has resulted in me having to deal with unbearable BS in copy protection - and I swear to God - if I see one of you in a movie theater with a video camera actively recording I am going to pull out a gun and shoot you between the eyes.
I am that pissed off.
slashdot troll = you make a compelling argument I do not like the implications of.
Ha!! Ha!!
I'll never understand the mentality of some people. There is an old saying "he who pays the piper calls the the tune". This means that Steam made the HL2 game and they get to dictate it's licensing. You don't like it? Stop buying proprietary software and start using open source or free software as, yet again, those who made it, licensed it as they saw fit: freely.
You people who think that just because you *can* download it means that it's "okay" need to get yourselves spanked ever now and then.
Is your ass sore now? Good. Think twice before screwing someone like this in the future.
You guys give the rest of us a really bad name.
GJC
Gregory Casamento
## Chief Maintainer for GNUstep
Why is this even an issue? First of all, I have no sympathy for anyone that has had their account disabled, and I see nothing wrong with what Valve is doing, or how they are going about it. If you used a leaked CD Key, you deserve all of what you've gotten, and if you installed a patch that was not endorsed nor created by Valve, you are stupid to do so. If I were in Valve's shoes, I would do the same thing. There is absolutely nothing wrong to enforcing the EULA in this manner, you agreed to it by installing the software, and the only reason that your account was disabled in the first place was because you violated it. You didn't HAVE to agree to the EULA. Well, that is what I think, IMHO.
But the game itself is woefully overrated. I'd say, "Off to eBay with this," but who knows whether HL 2 will work if it has to be reactivated by a new owner?
Presumably, if Steam still exists, and you sell the original CD key along with the game discs, the game can be reactivated (after all you can activate it on multiple machines). Now, if you sold it but kept a copy, and try to still use it yourself, your use of that key will conflict with the new owner's. But doing that would be quite naughty anyway, and the new owner (and Valve) would be justified in being right pissed at you. Just make sure you uninstall, and the new owner should be perfectly happy.
Levels are split at arbitrarily unidentified points, so you never know when you're going to get hit with another minute-long delay--or make that 2-3 minutes, if you decide you want to go back to explore or find supplies.
I can see why this pisses you off. It's annoying. I do find that the load points tend to be in "quiet" areas - deserted tunnels, empty rooms etc. I.e. areas that you're just passing through, so the pause is less jarring than it might be otherwise. However, I doubt that mid-level loads are avoidable in a complex 3D game with today's desktop technology level. Until computers can hold the whole level in memory at once, we'll have to cope with it.
Freedom: "I won't!"