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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)

#131

Post by ekianjo »

vertex-four wrote: post #87
ekianjo wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, lying about your true intent. It's not like he knew he was going to be arrested.

Police in the US don't have to tell you what they're doing up until the point they decide to exercise their power (i.e. searches or arrests) either, last time I checked. They can ask you to go somewhere and you can voluntarily comply or choose not to.

So you are OK with women police officers dressing up as prostitutes to attract potential costumers and then arresting them on the spot ? That's extremely twisted. There's a reason why in many countries police officers HAVE to wear uniforms.

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

#132

Post by phaus »

ZoFreX wrote: post #118
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.

>We're used to that model then, but this was a long time ago - before "Valve time" was so accepted.

"Valve time" was already universally accepted. Between Half-Life, TFC, and Counterstrike, there was an enormous amount of good will towards this company even back then. Plus, we were already used to "Valve time" because it was actually "id time." Id had been doing it for nearly a decade before HL2 game out.

>Additionally they had demo'd at E3 and claimed the demo was not scripted, whereas the leak showed it was almost entirely so.

The guy who obtained the source code himself said that there were so many builds on valve's servers he had no way of knowing whether or not he had the most current build.

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

#133

Post by damon_c »

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).

I have experienced similar. I have surmised that it's because as a web developer, sometimes the work I do for my clients one day translates into actual dollars either saved or generated the very next day.

It seems easy to justify paying well given that immediacy as opposed to a developer spending much more time/money optimizing GPU physics engines whose benefits would not be felt until the game was slightly better than its competition when it is released in a year.

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

#134

Post by PavlovsCat »

infinotize wrote: post #127
Fuxy wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be honest if find it kind of a dick move that Valve choose to have you arrested instead of making you work your ass off to make up for your mistake. It is justified what you did was illegal and not cool but they had the chance to turn it into something positive.

Should we not arrest master car theives because they are exceptionally talented? It's not unreasonable that their talent could be fit into some productive use. What about people who burglarize homes? Who fix soccer/football matches? Shoplifters? Assuming nonviolence in these cases. Would you preume perpetrators of all of those crimes just have to "work their asses off" to make up for "mistakes?" How do you arbitraril…

Did the leaking of the source code lead to competing games springing up, which cut into the profits of Valve, or any other damage?

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

#135

Post by gambler »

zaroth wrote: post #86
deftnerd wrote: post #2

It's stories like these that's inspired me to start up a new project at oppressed.me. I'm trying to compile a list of hackers and hacktivists that have been imprisoned in order to let the internet easily send them correspondence. I'm also going to ask publishers for donations of older copies of technical books to send them. A lot of hackers are just kids that make a stupid mistake. During their time in jail, their sk…

I think the system did quite well with Gembe all things considered... The judge sentenced him to two years' probation, citing his rough childhood and the way he had worked to turn his life around as considerations when it came to deciding on the relatively lenient punishment. The arrest at gunpoint sounds quite dramatic, but then again they let him stop for coffee and a cigarette on the way out, so this is not the ty…

The arrest at gunpoint sounds quite dramatic, but

There are no buts here. Non-violent offenders shouldn't be arrested at gun point. And it's not just a matter of scaring someone, it's a matter of public safety. I don't get why whenever an issue like that comes out, there is always someone jumping to defend dangerous practices like that.

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

#136

Post by buttscicles »

lmm wrote: post #106
pekk wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should we not start with black guys instead of making special exceptions for white kids committing "white collar" crimes? Why does the involvement of computers make some criminals better than others?

Because violent crime is, uh, worse than non-violent crime? Because it harms others more directly, and because the second-order effects of living in a society where violent crime happens are much worse than those of living in a society where white-collar crime happens?

Violence wasn't mentioned at all

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

#137

Post by owlmanatt »

PavlovsCat wrote: post #134
infinotize wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Should we not arrest master car theives because they are exceptionally talented? It's not unreasonable that their talent could be fit into some productive use. What about people who burglarize homes? Who fix soccer/football matches? Shoplifters? Assuming nonviolence in these cases. Would you preume perpetrators of all of those crimes just have to "work their asses off" to make up for "mistakes?" How do you arbitraril…

Did the leaking of the source code lead to competing games springing up, which cut into the profits of Valve, or any other damage?

No, but it's easy to say that with the benefit of hindsight.

Nobody knew everything would turn out OK back before HL2 was released.

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

#138

Post by josefresco »

phoboslab wrote: post #10

I still remember the day HL2 leaked. All of my friends and I were in IRC trying to download the damn thing from DCC bots. I was lucky and got a slot that provided the full 80kbyte/s. I finished the download first, but my PC was pretty old back then so I didn't even bother trying to run it. Instead, I removed my hard drive (my system drive!), picked up a friend and we drove to another friend who had the fastest PC at…

Your account brings back gaming memories from the late 90's and early 00's. "Leaks" and pirated copies of games ruled the day, and only served to make us all even bigger fans/obsessed gamers. The idea that you were using/seeing something that hadn't been released yet was thrilling and made us all even more dedicated to gaming. Of course then we were all poor college/HS kids, but most of us eventually got jobs and turned into Steam customers.

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

#139

Post by NoMoreNicksLeft »

Fuxy wrote: post #107
ago wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're completely right. The police were nice to me, probably because I was very cooperative. The team was about 15 people from the LKA, including the head of the cybercrime unit. I did cause a bit of a scare when I reached for the kitchen knife to cut some bread, but they quickly realized I didnt want to stab anyone. Of course I knew that I was far better off being in Germany than anywhere else, so I wasn't worried…

To be honest if find it kind of a dick move that Valve choose to have you arrested instead of making you work your ass off to make up for your mistake. It is justified what you did was illegal and not cool but they had the chance to turn it into something positive.

I do not believe Valve had much control over that. They needed to report it (failure to do so might get them in trouble with regulators, insurance, and all that crap), and once they do they don't get any say in how the investigation or prosecution is handled. Even if Newell refused to testify, chances are this wouldn't hinder prosecution very much... plenty of other evidence to stick it to the kid.

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

#140

Post by CocaKoala »

Fuxy wrote: post #125
meowface wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't really think so. If I was working on a game for years, only to find out someone broke into my network, planted keyloggers on lots of my computers, and stole all of the source code for my game, I'd be interested in arresting the perpetrator as well. The game was practically Gabe's second baby. Plus, there was no way Gabe could have known that Axel was 1) truly apologetic or 2) wasn't the one who also published…

Well the damage was already there wasn't much he or anybody else could do about that so giving the guy a chance to make up for his mistake wouldn't have hurt. Then again I'm sure he was really pissed so I can't blame him for doing what he did.

I can definitely think of at least one way that hiring the guy who hacked into your company's computers, planted keyloggers, and stole the source code of your project could hurt. I thought of another while I was typing that sentence.

Maybe the kid who did it wasn't actually sorry; maybe he was hoping to get more access so he could steal more stuff. That's a way it could hurt.

Maybe bringing the kid who stole your team's work and demoralized everybody isn't going to do great things for the company morale; that's another way it could hurt.

Giving people second chances is great and all, but it seems silly to say "[it] wouldn't have hurt"; it could have very easily gone wrong.

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