Valve Interview Helps Reveal Details Of HL2 Code Theft

Thanks to The Guardian for its article providing further details on the arrest of the Half-Life 2 code thieves, with Valve's Gabe Newell explaining: "Through conversations with this individual, [we] had convinced him to fly out to us in Seattle for a job interview. The plan was changed so German authorities would do the arrests on German soil." These facts seem to coincide with allegations that the Phatbot trojan writer also stole the Half-Life 2 code, leading to "Axel G"'s arrest in May by German authorities following FBI tips. Although unconfirmed, one can also presume the previously mentioned smoking gun to be an "incriminating information" packed IRC log, revealing the source of the intrusion as the webservers of a wearable computing firm with links to Valve, on a machine likely housed in the same physical location as the Valve offices, explaining the hacker's comments that he gained entry via "a PC in Valve's net, that wasnt directly controlled by Valve."

Maybe I have a skewed sense of ethics...

[Mitleid]

...but did anyone else see it as underhanded that Valve lured the source code thief into a trap by promising them a job?

I'm not trying to say that what the theif did wasn't illegal or that his actions are justified, or even that they deserved a job at Valve, but it just seemed to me like sort of a shady thing to do. I'm sure there have been occasions where "hackers" have been offered jobs as security advisors/consultants for the organizations they exploit. Even though the thief isn't the smartest individual for actually following up on Valve's "offer", he didn't necessarily have any reason to believe otherwise.

Eh, maybe I'm just too trusting and naive. I was just curious to hear anyone else's perspective on this, though.

Code "Theft"?

[silicon not in the v]

This seems like a good place to point this out. No one here has a problem with using the term "code theft" for when the people got hold of a copy of the Half Life 2 source code, but they will scream bloody murder if someone says "music theft" in reference to illegal music downloads. What an outrageous double standard!

I see. Since you don't produce music to sell, "The owners haven't been deprived of it. It should be enriching the public domain anyway. Actually, they're stealing from me by not releasing it to roam free across the creative landscape!" But since you do produce code to sell, "They're destroying the value of the code and taking my ability to sell it for profit now. They are taking money away from the hard work I put in to it."

If you've gotten this far, maybe you are a thoughtful moderator, rather than having marked me Troll or Flamebait already. Digital music / digital game code--they're both just bits in the bucket, so choose one label and stick to it. Don't try to separate them so you can defend one and hate the other.

Yeah right.

[AzraelKans]

The only news we have about HL2 these days is that Gabe Newell and his team are still personally helping in catching the "code thief" no beta testing, no network testing, not even a damn stress test of the steam server has taken place. Yet a lot of people still buy it when they say "Half life 2 is coming this summer!" yeah sure the same day we find those really well hidden weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.-

Lets throw a quick poll:

If you could suggest a course of action for valve at the time being that would be:

You should catch those pesky code thief thugs, their crimes cant go unpunished, justice shall prevail! even if they probably (and really) are from a country were "code thief" is not a crime we shall invade that country or something!

I dont care about the code thief! I have been waiting for hl2 since the stone age and I think you have a bigger responsability to the public than shielding in this as an excuse for not releasing a game you have hyped us about so much for such a long time!

SIT YOUR FAT ASS IN THAT CHAIR! GET SOME COFFEE TO KEEP YOU AWAKE AND START CODING LIKE THERE'S NO TOMORROW! NOW!

Option D would Involve scorting key valve employees at gun point to their workstations until a gold candidate is produced. Thats a bit harsh so is out of the poll. although could be considered in the future.

Results may vary.

Mod me as your heart pleases

Re:Code "Theft"?

[novakane007]

I agree with your commenst for the most part. Stealing a game is illegal and in the US, stealing music is no different. However, I have never heard of a person who has hacked a record labels servers and distributed rough tracks of an upcoming album. Theft from the public domain is one thing, but hacking in to private systems to steal digital property is something much worse in my mind.

Re:Oops. Prematurely hit the "submit" button

[Pluvius]

Having never had a financial interest in a creative work, they're probably not as aware of the contradictory nature of their positions.

Or they're just jerks...

Or they realize that there's a big difference between stealing sensitive source code that wasn't meant to be distributed to the public (then doing so) and stealing a finished product that was, thus making their position not contradictory at all.

But it's easier to think in false dilemmas.

Rob