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The boy who stole Half Life 2 source code (2011)

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Re: The boy who stole Half Life 2 source code (2011)

#111

Post by norswap »

codexon wrote: post #9
ahuth wrote: post #4

I'm not condoning breaking into the network and stealing source code, but what financial damage did this cause to Valve? The article repeatedly refers to financial damages, but I'm not sure how that is.

Well first of all, the game appeared to be playable, so there's the piracy aspect. The Source engine is also licensed to other games. If the code is public, other engines could copy their features. Also it is very annoying to re-secure all your computers after you have been breached. Every single person has to change their password and you don't know what backdoors the guy has installed without a full wipe sometimes.

The piracy aspect is bogus, most games are cracked within days of release anyway.

Like other commenters said, they used him as a scapegoat; he did zero damage except make poor ol' Gabe worry.

Re: The boy who stole Half Life 2 source code (2011)

#113

Post by psykovsky »

atmosx wrote: post #97
jakejake wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a kinda strange thing. Before the digital age kids like myself just did not have access to many things that could get them into so much trouble. I caused my share of mischief when I was a kid, just like most boys will do. Probably the worst tools I had at my disposal were eggs or snowballs to throw at cars. The opportunity for me to reach out from my bedroom and cause damage to a multi-national corporation or go…

I wonder what % of HN people never made anything illegal, like: * Hack into a remove computer server/friends PC. * Broke a WEP/WPA wifi network to gain access * Performed MiTM to see what kind of data can sniff * Performed brute-force dictionary attack without being asked. * Shared illegal digital material with friends I feel it's about ~ 3%.

I sense optimism in that number...

Re: The boy who stole Half Life 2 source code (2011)

#114

Post by tzs »

macspoofing wrote: post #67
benihana wrote: post #57

"Have you any idea how lucky you are that we got to you before you got on that plane?" The difference in the way he was treated by police and the justice system (and how different it is than what we've come to expect in America) is what struck me the most about this story.

Same. They let him grab something to eat and even smoke a cigarette before they brought him in. Then he gets two years of probation. It all feels very reasonable to me. Compare that to the $1 million fine, 35 years in prison (followed by 3 years of supervised release) Aaron Swartz was facing by downloading documents anyone can access just by virtue of connecting to the campus Wifi. There is definitely something reall…

> Compare that to the $1 million fine, 35 years in prison (followed by 3 years of supervised release) Aaron Swartz was facing

Swartz was NOT facing anywhere near 35 years in prison. He was facing, if he went to trail and lost on all charges, and the court decided that he had caused a large amount of monetary damage, around 7 years. If he had taken the plea bargain that was on the table, he was facing a few months.

Prior discussion with more detail: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7004640

Re: The boy who stole Half Life 2 source code (2011)

#115

Post by SixSigma »

atmosx wrote: post #97
jakejake wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a kinda strange thing. Before the digital age kids like myself just did not have access to many things that could get them into so much trouble. I caused my share of mischief when I was a kid, just like most boys will do. Probably the worst tools I had at my disposal were eggs or snowballs to throw at cars. The opportunity for me to reach out from my bedroom and cause damage to a multi-national corporation or go…

I wonder what % of HN people never made anything illegal, like: * Hack into a remove computer server/friends PC. * Broke a WEP/WPA wifi network to gain access * Performed MiTM to see what kind of data can sniff * Performed brute-force dictionary attack without being asked. * Shared illegal digital material with friends I feel it's about ~ 3%.

Add :

* Scraped website and used the data for some other opportunity

Re: The boy who stole Half Life 2 source code (2011)

#116

Post by n1ghtmare_ »

Bahamut wrote: post #76
psykotic wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Cool software that makes money (game development) doesn't pay very much. Your thinking must be stuck in the last century. By the time I entered the game industry 13 years ago, salaries were already on par with the software industry at large. My first full-time position was in 2003 and paid $85,000/year. Based on the numbers I've seen, game programmers currently earn significantly more than web developers with an eq…

Are you sure about that? After 1 1/2 years in web development I am making significantly more than all of my game developer friends (even 2x some).

As a web developer, that's very strange to me. Honestly game development seems MUCH harder (from what I've experienced). Not sure why that's the case.

Re: The boy who stole Half Life 2 source code (2011)

#117

Post by noir_lord »

FiloSottile wrote: post #33
codexon wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't feel sorry for malware writers. They are not oppressed and deserve what they got. And this guy also stole people's software keys. If they were talented coders, they could've found less destructive ways to make money. But he decided to go the greedy route.

> If they were talented coders, they could've found less destructive ways to make money. But he decided to go the greedy route. Let me guess: you are a US citizen, or anyway live in a country where developer positions abound. Well, not everyone is. Some people live in small towns where the cool programming positions are adapting invoice management software for small businesses. Also this was before Freelancer.com, be…

> Some people live in small towns where the cool programming positions are adapting invoice management software for small businesses.

That's been essentially my entire (for money) programming career and I adore it, taking a crappy manual/outdated process and refining it to create a tool that becomes a core part of a customers business is vastly rewarding to me.

Re: The boy who stole Half Life 2 source code (2011)

#118

Post by ZoFreX »

phaus wrote: post #63

Interesting story, terrible article. Valve has always followed the "when its ready" release model. The article makes it sound like there was a huge conspiracy to keep valve's ineptness a secret, else Gabe would have no alternative than to commit ritual suicide.

We're used to that model then, but this was a long time ago - before "Valve time" was so accepted. They had been publically stating that the game was weeks from release, not saying "when it's done" at all. Additionally they had demo'd at E3 and claimed the demo was not scripted, whereas the leak showed it was almost entirely so.

Re: The boy who stole Half Life 2 source code (2011)

#119

Post by ZoFreX »

codexon wrote: post #9
ahuth wrote: post #4

I'm not condoning breaking into the network and stealing source code, but what financial damage did this cause to Valve? The article repeatedly refers to financial damages, but I'm not sure how that is.

Well first of all, the game appeared to be playable, so there's the piracy aspect. The Source engine is also licensed to other games. If the code is public, other engines could copy their features. Also it is very annoying to re-secure all your computers after you have been breached. Every single person has to change their password and you don't know what backdoors the guy has installed without a full wipe sometimes.

The game was not really that playable - you could boot up isolated levels, but it was completely unfinished. Huge chunks were missing. There's no way it would make a suitable replacement for the game that would be released much later.

Re: The boy who stole Half Life 2 source code (2011)

#120

Post by oblio »

kenrikm wrote: post #55
ahuth wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would the leak cause major portions of the engine to need to be rewritten? Seems more likely that it was a convenient excuse.

it was used as an excuse, the real reason is that Valve is REALLY slow at developing games.

I wouldn't say they're slow. You wouldn't believe the rate they're adding features to Dota 2, for example. I believe that they're actually quite a small crew with very ambitious projects, and they tend to move around a lot.
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