I found the story to be quite tragic. This kid really saw the people at Valve as his heroes. Valve knew this and totally abused of that fact. They tricked him and was planning to hand him to the FBI, despite the fact he was (still is) their biggest fan and that the leak was accidental. I would have really hired him if I was in Gabe's position. He had both passion and skills. I think he would make an awesome YC applicant if he directed those to creating a web startup.
The Boy Who Stole Half-Life 2
11–20 of 130 posts
Re: The Boy Who Stole Half-Life 2
#12I found the story to be quite tragic. This kid really saw the people at Valve as his heroes. Valve knew this and totally abused of that fact. They tricked him and was planning to hand him to the FBI, despite the fact he was (still is) their biggest fan and that the leak was accidental. I would have really hired him if I was in Gabe's position. He had both passion and skills. I think he would make an awesome YC applic…
Considering how good Valve is making fanbases, the number of hackpplicants would then be untenable.
Re: The Boy Who Stole Half-Life 2
#13I wonder why Valve didn't offered him a job. He was naive but talented and passionate about gaming.
Re: The Boy Who Stole Half-Life 2
#14Considering that he's been sentenced and assuming he has served the term of probation, if he were to set foot on the US, could he be tried and sentenced again, or does Double Jeopardy protect him even if he already had proceeded through the German court system?
Double Jeopardy doesn't protect you from being tried in multiple jurisdictions.
An American example is the "D.C. Snipper" who was charged in Maryland, Virginia, and D.C. to maximize jailtime and possibility of conviction.
Re: The Boy Who Stole Half-Life 2
#15I found the story to be quite tragic. This kid really saw the people at Valve as his heroes. Valve knew this and totally abused of that fact. They tricked him and was planning to hand him to the FBI, despite the fact he was (still is) their biggest fan and that the leak was accidental. I would have really hired him if I was in Gabe's position. He had both passion and skills. I think he would make an awesome YC applic…
Considering how good Valve is making fanbases, the number of hackpplicants would then be untenable.
As far as I know he was the only one who have succeeded in not only hacking in, but also not being traced back despite all of Valves efforts. (They even got the FBI involved.) How many of the "hackpplicants" can you say the same about? The only reason Valve even knew who did it was because he came forward to them. He admired Gabe and his team so much that his dream is to join them. All of this indicate to me that he would make an awesome employee. I have little doubt that he would have poured his heart and soul into the company had he been given the chance. In fact that is the main reason why I found the story to be so tragic.
Re: The Boy Who Stole Half-Life 2
#16I wonder why Valve didn't offered him a job. He was naive but talented and passionate about gaming.
Valve maintains systems that contain sensitive financial information, sensitive internal IP, and a whole library of external IP from other publishers. This wasn't a script kiddie pulling things off bit-torrent, this was an elaborate penetration into a corporate network.
If I was in Valve's position, I would blackball him from working there because he couldn't be trusted, and the damage he caused.
Damage caused was at least time spent cleaning up his mess in their network. Conversely it sounds like Valve had a very weak security setup in their network.
Re: The Boy Who Stole Half-Life 2
#17Considering that he's been sentenced and assuming he has served the term of probation, if he were to set foot on the US, could he be tried and sentenced again, or does Double Jeopardy protect him even if he already had proceeded through the German court system?
Double Jeopardy doesn't protect you from being tried in multiple jurisdictions. An American example is the "D.C. Snipper" who was charged in Maryland, Virginia, and D.C. to maximize jailtime and possibility of conviction.
Was that all for a single crime, or did each trial cover separate instances?
Re: The Boy Who Stole Half-Life 2
#18I wonder why Valve didn't offered him a job. He was naive but talented and passionate about gaming.
Would you hire somebody that already stole something major from your very company?
Re: The Boy Who Stole Half-Life 2
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
Considering how good Valve is making fanbases, the number of hackpplicants would then be untenable.
As far as I know he was the only one who have succeeded in not only hacking in, but also not being traced back despite all of Valves efforts. (They even got the FBI involved.) How many of the "hackpplicants" can you say the same about? The only reason Valve even knew who did it was because he came forward to them. He admired Gabe and his team so much that his dream is to join them. All of this indicate to me that he…
My point is it would encourage more people to apply by trying to hack into the company's networks instead of just creating impressive mods, Valve is a game dev/platform company after all not a network security one.
Re: The Boy Who Stole Half-Life 2
#20I'm happy to see that, while he did something wrong, because he was honest and openly remorseful throughout, he ended up not going to prison. The cops even seemed cordial, they let him get breakfast and a smoke. I wonder how differently things would have played out if he lived in the US.
I think the German police clearly thought he was not going to get justice from the US (hence the remarks about how lucky he was that they got him before he got on the plane) and saved him from falling into the FBI's trap.
Considering the rash of "OMG the police barged into my house, shot my goldfish and raped my star wars collection" type stories I've been hearing, is it safe to assume that the German police are quite a bit more sensible than their American counterparts?
The whole experience sounds rather civilized. The police let Gembe get dressed, eat breakfast and smoke a cigarette before bringing him down to the station. And when he confessed, his punishment was 2 years in probation.
I somehow doubt his experience with the FBI would have been similar.