Valve Takes the Offensive on Warez Users?

Drull writes "It's claimed by a poster on filefront.com that Valve might have released a "Warez" version of Half-Life 2 to monitor and ban those who attempt to use it. This is the news from some guy with a filefront account, so take it with a grain of salt.

Just asking for trouble

[Torgo's Pizza]

If this pans out to be true, Valve could be in serious legal trouble. I totally sympathize with Valve in their efforts to combat piracy, but the moment they toy with other people's computers is when class action lawsuits occur. There are times that you just *can't* take the law into your own hands.

I'll really feel sorry for those people who perhaps used this (if real) file to "no cd" their legitimate versions thinking that they were trying to save themselves some Steam hassle only to hose their system/accounts.

Re:Just asking for trouble

[Torgo's Pizza]

Doesn't that fit into the spyware catagory then? Keep in mind, I agree with you that the pirate has that Karma wheel spinning back at him to hit him in the face, but I worry that from a *legal* standpoint that Valve hasn't fully thought this through.

Re:Avoiding to piss off their consumer base?

[Anonymous Coward]

Look, Steam is new. Steam is still a baby. Give it time. Valve is the first company to really do something like this and they did it with one of the most anticipated releases in the world. I'd say they did pretty well. They'll learn from this experience to make the next big Steam-based release much smoother.

You can't expect perfection right off the bat. It would be nice, but it isn't realistic.

Re:Unlikely, but a nifty idea

[Random Guru 42]

By saying that they're running this, however, even if it's totally fake, will still encourage people who sit on the fence to buy a legitimate copy rather than pirate it. It's a good move, even if it is a lie.

Several Possibilities

[TellarHK]

Gabe could be saying what he did just to put the scare tactics out there. I would think that could be pretty effective, up to a point. It seems to me that Valve had several options for ways to make HL2 a bit more secure than the average release, by way of options like having the HL2.exe check the MD5 on the Steam.exe, and vice-versa, or other you-get-my-back-I-get-yours dual anti-piracy measures. Considering that I got over five years of playtime out of Half-Life and various mods, I think paying for HL2 was a very wise investment, and feel that people who pirate it just need to pay up and stop harming a developer that gave modding the biggest kick in the pants since inception.

"Let's let people mod our game. And what the hell, we'll buy the leading map editor for our format and give it out for free." iD didn't do that. Everyone else followed Valve's lead here.

The way I would like to see Valve approach this, would be to let people get a taste of the game with the pirated version (maybe the first 1-2 chapters) and then lock Steam down tight, wipe out a few of the required game files (like the .gcf files, nothing executable) and pull some form of identifying mark from the user. If you pirate software, and the company swipes something identifying you personally - as long as it's nothing that could be considered "theft" of data or records - morally, you deserve what you get.

I hope Valve does have some kind of a crackdown in progress, we'll have to see where it goes from here. Gabe never replied to my question about the "post-Steam" future of Half-Life 2, which is my only real concern about the authorization system.

Re:Take a lesson

[MindStalker]

They have done a solid job and snuffing out pirating while managing to avoid pissing off their consumer base.

Many people are complaining because it took then close to 4 hours to get approval to play the game once they installed it.

Also the word on the street is that you can get the pirate crack for this, and be playing it in less time.

How incredibly astute of them!

[Txiasaeia]

Let me get this straight: People download warezed copies of Half-Life 2, a single player game. They use a program in order to get around Steam. Valve finds out and prevents them from then on from using Steam. For a single-player game which people already have single-player access to. Isn't this kinda like closing the barn door after the cows have left?

Side note: it's depressing how much my idioms have changed after living in Saskatchewan for five years.

No soup for who?

[spyrochaete]

I'm not really getting this... It's easier to patch than to reverse-engineer, so I presume the warez version of the game is supplied with a crack that fakes out the Steam authentication so that it doesn't know it's being tricked. Nobody who is interested only in the single player game will connect to another computer online.

How can they expect to track people? Bittorrent? The only tracking information specified in BT is IP address, and most people have a dynamic IP which can be changed by unplugging their modem for 10 minutes.

And what's the penalty? They're banned from the service they don't need? So what?

Re:Unlikely, but a nifty idea

[swright]

The thing that's troubling me about all this is that if Valve acutally put this 'warezed' version online then surely it isn't warez at all..

I mean, they uploaded for everyone else to copy. Freely. With no EULA presumably.

Surely if Valve put it online then it's not illegal to download/use it and the worst they can do is ban you from Steam?

Half-Life 2 for FREE, no warez, no crack

[Anonymous Coward]

I think if this story has any merit, it's simply Valve trying to save face in light of the embarrasing flaw/trick with steam which allows anyone to download and activate HL2 for free. http://www.nforce.nl/nfos/renderer/ls-black.php?id =79200 [nforce.nl]

Re:Take a lesson

[nvrrobx]

Wait. They've managed to not piss off their customers? I don't think you've talked to enough of their customers.

I bought it to play against my coworkers. I can't install it and use it. It _requires_ an outbound UDP connection on a wierd port. Before anyone makes a comment about playing it at work, we're _allowed_ to where I work. Our corporate security policy has rules about it (after 5 pm, only legal software, yadda yadda yadda), but our bosses will play Warcraft III and such with us. It makes for a great stress reliever or team building exercise.

So, I did it at home instead. Install took 45 minutes (5 CDs?! Gimme a damned DVD!) then Steam took 20 minutes to get "registered" then another 25 minutes to "unlock" the binaries.

Everyone I work with is pissed off about how Steam works.

Maybe it could hurt Valve more

[G-Spot]

If this is true, it actually could end up hurting Valve in the end. For instance, lets say someone downloads a copy of HL2 and plays it. In the process, they are banned from Steam. They decide that they like the game and perhaps would like to play CS:Source or DoD:Source, and so they try and purchase the game. Valve, having locked the potential customer out of Steam, will have lost a customer. Now, you're probably saying that people who download games have no reason to buy them, but this is not true, especially in this case, considering that many people buy the game for CS:Source and DoD:Source. I myself first played an illegal copy of Half-Life, but then bought the game because I liked it and wanted to play TFC. This is only considering the fact that Valve could track the users...
Now, how is Valve going to track the user? Look on their computer for a Steam account and ban all accounts found? What if one of their friends had been over playing on their box, logged into steam, and there were two accounts on the machine? Ban both accounts? I know I was showing my friend the CS:Source beta when he didn't have it, I saw my account directory still on his machine last week. What if the user of the pirated software didn't even have Steam? Ban his IP? Not practical due to dynamic IP's. I know, many people have broadband connections with static IPs, but still many don't. Also, if a user owns a steam account, it's a good bet that they have purchased a product, such as HL or CS:CZ. If someone can find in the Steam EULA where it allows Valve to revoke use of a product that a user already owns, please post it in reply to this. Direct quotes only please. So, in summary, this is either bullshit or a pretty stupid plan... I'm betting on the former.

Pah!

[10537]

Far from this Steam activation deal encouraging me to buy the game rather than use a warezed version, it's done precisely the opposite. I was going to buy the boxed version of it to avoid the horrors of Steam (have you ever READ the T&Cs for it?), but now it transpires that it's Steam or no HL2 I guess it's no HL2 for me. For starters my gaming PC is not, nor will it ever be, connected to the internet, but that's not the only thing:

One, Valve's LAN-gaming policy is retarded -- you have to apply a month in advance if you want to play a Valve game at a LAN-party, but at the moment it's not enforced. However, all they need to do is disable the "offline play" mode on Steam...

Two, what happens if at some point in the future Valve go belly up? What good then your $60 piece of software?

Three, this is just another step towards some sort of stupid broadcast flag/induce act piece of moronicity.

Four, the only people inconvenienced by this (along with every other piece of product activation ever created) are people who paid for it. People with warezed versions are saved the hassle (and in the case of the CS:Source Emporio release, occasionally get extra features).

So long, Gabe -- I waited years for HL2, but I guess I'll never get to play it now.

Re:Take a lesson

[White-out_On_Screen]

Both were issues with the retail distribution cab files. From what I've been able to read on message boards, this is a common problem; the installer basically fails to unpack them properly. That I do blame Valve for-either they failed to correctly develop or correctly test their installer, or they contracted it out to someone who wasn't trustworthy. My problem with Steam? You have to work around an antipiraccy system in order to run a single-player game offline. The irony of having a game where one theme is the oppression and monitoring of a populace by a big-brother type organization phone home to make sure you're following rules is incredible. Bugs? Audio skipping, draw errors, ridiculous load times, and instability. My system is well above minimum spec. (2.8GP4, 1G RAM, 9800Pro, etc). Problems like this shouldn't occur with a flagship product.

Re:Avoiding to piss off their consumer base?

[dougmc]

Did you read the EULA? I suspect (but don't know since I don't own the game) that's part of the EULA.

Yes, I read it *very* carefully. And yes, it's there. (Like most EULAs, it gives Valve the permission to pretty much do anything it wants.) But I wanted to play HL2, so I sold a bit of my soul to do so.

I knew what I was getting into, mostly. Though I was under the impression that Steam was a one-time thing, that once authenticated I didn't need to deal with it ever again. I was obviously very wrong.

But none of this means that I have to like it, or that I can't bitch about it and either improve Steam or make it optional for single player games again, as it should be. Maybe if enough people bitch enough, Valve will see the light. In theory, I could return the game (voting with your pocketbook is very effective), but it does work eventually, and it's fun once started, so I don't really have much of a case to make to return it.

Re:Take a lesson

[Kenja]

Check me on this. Did you try to install without selecting Counter Strike? With the retail CDs you HAVE to install Counter Strike or the intaller will look for the hl2.ico1 file in the fourth CAB file rather then the fifth. That was a fun thing for me to figure out. Took all night.

Re:Take a lesson

[aonifer]

The RIAA and MPAA should take a lesson. Valve has done a pretty incredible thing.

They reinvented Divx for games. I can still play System Shock 2, despite the fact that Looking Glass Studios shut down years ago. Prove to me that I can legally play HL2 five years from now.

Re:Take a lesson

[Tackhead]

> The game doesn't demand you be on-line after activation. It does require Steam, but Steam is a PART of Half-Life 2. It's the foundation the game is built upon.

Uh huh. And WeSpy4U2.33 is part of Kazaa. ("See, the product doesn't work if you try to bypass the spyware component! We're just trying to enhance your Kazaa experience and make sure you have the latest and greatest we have to offer!")

What happens next, when EA writes its own clone of Steam, without which no EA titles will run? And when Activision writes its clone? And Sony writes its clone? And the MPAA writes its clone and bundles it with Windows Media Player 16.666? And RIAA writes its clone as a part of theyTunes 2.0?

How many of these "online content delivery services" will we have to be running, simultaneously, hoping that none of them conflict with each other, cursing the pop-up ads that come as marketeers decide to "monetize" the desktop, and taking "self help measures" when they see us doing something they don't like?

And how many of them will be as "honest" about not being spyware as Steam might be?

Even though...

[ribo-bailey]

this is a dumb response from some idiot with a website.... I will say one thing. After purchasing a LEGAL copy of HL2 (and downloading the massive amount of content) I decided to watch pftop on another monitor. Single player Half-LIfe 2 did about 600M worth of chatting with valve while I was playing the game.

Re:Take a lesson

[paradesign]

Why should i have to ask Valve permission to use an offline single-player game when i want to? I paid for the game, why cant i 'just use it'? Whats going to happen when Valve stops supporting their authentication server for HL2? Are they going to refund me my $$$, 'cause my game is now useless?

As good as the game may be, i will not give money to a company that endorses such shit policies. As soon as there is a cracked version that eliminates the need for a net connection i will be using it on my internet free gaming box, but Valve will not see a penny from me. Im not a 'pirate', i just dont support companies with shit policies.

Re:Just asking for trouble

[Jugalator]

There's no real point to cracking it if you have a legal version.

Yeah, a big reason is to play single player (many people buy HL2 just for that reason) without having to be connected to the internet.

You'd risk running some hacker's code on your machine just to save -maybe- 10 or 15 seconds

Or being unable to connect at all if their authentication server happens to be down (it's not like it has never happened before), or being delayed as you say, or having to have your network connection ready which can be annoying if you play with a laptop and move around a bit more from your geek cellar. :-)

Re:Avoiding to piss off their consumer base?

[dougmc]

Two different people just finished telling you that disconnecting WILL NOT make HL2 faster

Odd, I said the same thing ... I wonder if I'm counted in the two people that supposedly told me this ...

because authentication is NOT the part that your PC takes so long to load.

HL2 will not start until Steam starts. Steam takes several minutes to start. I don't want to play Steam -- I want to play HL2. But I have to wait for Steam to start, because if I try to start HL2 before it's done, HL2 silently fails. I don't care what Steam is doing, be it authentication, checking for updates or something else -- I still have to wait for it to finish before I can play HL2.

I did not find an option in the Steam menu to tell it not to do whatever it was doing (I assume it's talking to the Internet, but I really don't know -- I haven't whipped out the network sniffer yet.)

Either way, from the time I get logged into my computer, it's almost 8 minutes until I can play HL2. Compare to Doom 3, where it's only 90 seconds. If you've got an option in Steam that will remove this delay, by all means, share it. I didn't find it on my own.

What the fuck is wrong with you?

Apparantly the fact that I want to play a single player game that still needs to talk to an Internet anti-piracy/advertising service.

Have you considered that maybe I'm not as dense as you're assuming I am?

Re:Just asking for trouble

[flyondawall]

Last night I went to play HL2. I noticed that were two popup messages from stream. I didn't even know stream was running in the background. It told me it could finally vaildate my copy. Which it couldn't do when I installed it, I glad it let me play without it. It also told me that that copy of hl2 could only work with my new steam account, so much for trading it. Also if I lost me steam account your screwed message so print it now. The only popup was some advertisment ...huh...what the hell is this crap. I guess I agreed to be spammed by steam somewhere. How long before that open port gets hacked? Oh well good game though.. flyondawall

I consider HL2 a victory against piracy

[Mr. Grimm]

For the first time in a long time, the final version of the game was first played by the people who bought it, not the pirates. No security is completely foolproof, but I think that's about as close as you can get these days.

Re:Unlikely, but a nifty idea

[captwheeler]

... if Valve acutally put this 'warezed' version online then surely it isn't warez at all..

I mean, they uploaded for everyone else to copy. Freely. With no EULA presumably.

Thats an interesting legal question. We do know the intent of the participants though (assuming this happened at all, which seems doubtfull.)

The downloaders were trying to get a free version of something they knew was not free.

The company did not want to give away the game for free, just catch pirates.

Given those two intentions, and the governments willingness to make copyright infringement something the Department of Justice can prosecute, the law won't stop this sort of action for long. If companies want to do this and the law won't let them, the law will change quickly.

I think the what makes your argument seem so compelling is an ambiguity: "...they uploaded for everyone else to copy. Freely." Freely as in they did not want people to pay for the game? They may have made it possible (easier) for people to cheat the activation, but they did not intend to have people not paying. Just the opposite: they knew people would steal it and made it possible for them to do so, while collecting info. about the people. It's like putting a copyrighted picture on the web: people might steal it, but their the one's who've done wrong, not you for making it possible.

Makes me think the RIAA should post every song it can to its own web site and just see who downloads what.

Im pirating ASAP!

[ender_wiggins]

I bought this game, opened it, and it doesnt work because of a firewall i dont control. So i can return it and i'm screwed with a game i cant play! So as soon as i see a pirate version, im downloading it.

Re:Take a lesson

[IgnoramusMaximus]

This is incredible.

I will let you in on a secret: I just returned HL2 to EB and I am downloading the said cracked version. It is the first time ever I am pirating a game. This is my answer to Steam.

Not only the fucking thing did not work, I object to the idea of Steam on principle. I do not care if those morons at Valve figure that they will get rich by trying to chain me down by my balls so that every time they yank the chain, I will have to part with more of my money.

I did my duty as a consumer, I went to the store, bought the thing and followed the instructions. They failed their duty as manufacturer and treated me like a thief and via their extreme "protection" measures not only failed to make their product opearational buy also attempted to violate my privacy and take control of my computer.

I have news for you Valve. If you are going to treat me like a thief, assume that only your time is worth something and mine is utterly worthless, treat me with contempt as your "technical support" isn't, I will resort to one of the remedies available to me: I will do the "thieving" you are accusing me of, because if I am going to get the treatment, I might as well get the benefits.

Oh and by now it is you who ows me money since the cost of your "product" is far less then the expense of my time attempting to make it work. The going rate for my type of services is ~$150/hr and I spend in exceess of 10 hours allready on this crap troubleshooting it. Let it be lesson to you! You just turned someone who despite his view of "Intellecual Property" bullshit was up to now a law-obiding consumer into your dreaded nemesis: a "pirate"! Arghhh mateys!

No more of this nonsense. The gravvy train has ended for you scumbags.

Re:Just asking for trouble

[AmigaAvenger]

Further, some programs are wrapped in copy-protection that is so heinous it keeps particular hardware from using the game in the first place (BF:1942).

AMEN!
BF1942 was so bad that about 9/10 times it refused to see my perfectly good OEM disk in the drive. i would have to try restarting the game, many, many times, and sometimes restart the computer also. Sometimes I just gave up. Once I got the no-cd crack, I was finally able to play the game I had purchsed the day it was released. (not cheap either!)

What Would This Be?

[One Childish N00b]

A HL2 torrent released so they can monitor and ban IPs that connect to it? I doubt it, as that's a legal minefield - you don't even need to be a lawyer to see how a smart pirate is going to make Valve look like fools in court by arguing that by connecting to the torrent and, by the nature of bittorrent, sending just one byte of the game down his pipe, they were displaying conscious intent to give him the whole game for free, thus whipping their case out from under them.

Or, as someone else suggested, a .zip full of large junk files with an .exe that just 'calls home' and gets your Steam ID banned? I doubt this too, as all it would take would be for one vindictive hax0r who just got his Steam account wiped to rename the home-calling .exe as something perfectly legal and start serving it up over Kazaa and bam!, anyone who downloads it gets their Steam IDs hosed. I can't see Valve being stupid enough to run the risk of being liable for something like that, even if it's not likely they would be the ones in the wrong in the eyes of the law in that situation - they'd definately at least be seen as irresponsible for making such a move so easy to perform.

Or there's option C. That this is bullshit scaremongering. My money's on the latter.
And since when did rumours in jumped-up forum posts become news, anyway?
Bad Slashdot.

Re:Half-Life 2 for FREE, no warez, no crack OCR'd

[Anonymous Coward]

Follow these steps to unlock Half-Life 2 via Steam and plan without a valid cd-key:

1 Launch Steam.

2 Right click on Half-Life 2 in the 'Just Released' list and click 'Purchase'.

3 Enter the following cd-key and click 'Next':
(removed due to lameness filter, just use all "*")

4 then it gets to 2 bars. pull out four network cable or disconnect four modem.

5 Let it keep going. don't crash steam. then it finishes you should get a message
saving ''Servers are busy and then Half-Life 2 will appear in Your 'My games' list.

Now put the network cable back in or reconnect your modem Do not attempt to
run the game. if you do. a message will appear saying. "Duplicate cd-key' and the
game will disappear from your 'My Ganes' list.

6 Right click Half-Life 2 in the 'My games' list and click Properties. Change
automatic updates to 'Do not automatically update this Game' and then back to
'always keep this game up to date'.

7 now you should see a message box saying 'Unlocking Half-Life 2 game files'.
When this is finished (should take between 5-10@ mins) Steam will update the game.

8 wait until the update is finished. and then open the following encrypted GCF files
using GcFscape and extract all files to 1 directory:

- half-life 2 content.gcf
- source engine.gcf
- source naterials.gcf
- source models.gcf
- source sounds.gcf

9) Once this is done. Copy your Counter-strike: Source 'bin' folder and paste it where
you have extracted the Half-Life 2 files.

10): Create a shortcut of hl2.exe on the desktop using the -steam command.

(eg. ''C:\HL2\hl2.exe'' -steam)

11): Now run the shortcut on the desktop. You should now be able to play Half-Life 2
and without running through steam.

-- Download GcFscape from:
http://countermap.counter.strike.net/Nemesi s/

NOTES:
This method night not work with the empirio release. since that release was a pack
of a already installed game. most likely you'll have to wait till reloaded or another
game group does the retail of this game so you can put this method to use.
You can stop by #halflife2 in efnet and thank them for this method!

Re:Take a lesson

[Anonymous Coward]

I believe I had the same problem as you are describing (Error 1335. The cabinet file required for this installation is corrupt and cannot be used. This could indicate a network error, an error reading from the CD-ROM, or a problem with this package.)

There is a workaround for this (taken from Microsoft's knowledge base, for Office XP, and others, but fixes the same problem with other platforms). The link to the fix is here [microsoft.com], easiest method (for me) was Method 2. I changed it to 256MB, rebooted, and it worked like a charm. If this is a different error than the one you got, then maybe I helped out someone else reading this.

Re:Is it just me...?

[j.bellone]

Not to mention that Bram Cohen worked at Valve for a good period of time on the Steam client/server protocols.

Re:Take a lesson

[IgnoramusMaximus]

You sir are ignorant. Hey, I bought this car and even though it had a big sign that said "MANUAL SHIFT" I was pissed that it wasn't automatic, so I returned it and went out and stole an automatic car.

It is you who is ignorant. Unlike a car or any other physical object a game is "property" only as far as we all agree to pretend it is in a gentlemen's agreement called "intellectual property rights". If you steal a car from a lot, that car is no longer available to someone else because it is a unique physical object. If I pirate or not pirate the game everyone who is foolish enought to submit to Valve still has it. The fact that you brought this utterly stupid "example" tells volumes about the level of brainwashing you are accepting.

Valve is a company that has been supporting a no-money-making game for the past 5 years with CounterStrike. Forgot that you haven't had to pay one penny to play it for the past 5 years??? Maybe they fucking deserve a little compensation, ok nitwit?

No it is you who is a nitwit and a scumbag since it is you who I did support with my original purchase of HalfLife. I never played CS and probably never will. So now how does it look like? I am the one who paid Valve for their original product which enabled you to ride on my coattails even though I never used the supposed "services" of Valve ever since. Now I come with my money agan... and guess what... I am to be screwed by Steam? You are a pathetic parasite..

Bram Cohen / Bit torrent

[dspiral7]

Please correct me if I am wrong (and I know you will) but did Valve not hire Bram Cohen to help with steam? And didn't Bram say in a recent interview (I can find it if someone wants) that bit torrent never will be, or should never be anonymous? So, Valve is paying him, do they ask him to help fight piracy on bit torrent? Obviously Valve has exceptionally more information about Bit Torrent that your average anti-piracy software company. This raises many questions/possibilities

Re:Take a lesson

[lmnoq]

I wholeheartedly object to this and all other gamers should as well. Take a look at Xbox Live-- They are doing similar things as Steam in "downloadable content" How long will it take for them to realize that they can loop the noose around your nuts and charge you for updates? You want the new map pack for Half Life2/3? That'll be a 12.95/mo service charge for Steam please. This is the direction that gaming companies are starting to turn. It may not be evident yet, but if/when people start giving in and using this crap, they are going to rape people for more money after-the-fact.

Re:Take a lesson

[IgnoramusMaximus]

Since some Valve admirers are trying to mute me here by troll-rating, I will rephrase my reply in a more civilized way:

If you don't like the company, don't play the game. Don't pirate it, just ignore it and go on with your life

That was an option before I bought it and spent my money and time on it. I did my part of the bargain, they didnt. I now deserve compensation. No matter what various appologists of Valve are about to say.

. Congratulations, your morals suck. The people who worked 5 years on this won't get any of your money...and you are so proud of yourself, that you want them to pay you money. Beyond my comprehension...it's people like you who are the problem.

No, what is immoral is your insistence that only the game developers have rights because they are the ones bringing you new "oooh shiney" moments in exchange for you parting with some of your rights.

I will also add that yes, people like you are indeed the source of the problem. You are the ones who encourage Valve and others to take away more of your rights and institute tighter controls on you. Some of us are of the old school of individual liberties and rights and can still remember the days when the manufacturers had the obligation to make their products work and were not allowed to change conditions of the sale after the fact.

Re:Take a lesson

[Damvan]

Guess you don't fly much, since the TSA won't treat you like "the law-abiding citizen" you are. Guess you don't frequent to many stores, since they put those security cameras up and security tags on the items, because you want to be treated like "the law-abiding citizen" you are. Guess you never go to the bank, with that security guard, and cameras not treating you like "the law-abiding citizen" you are. Do you ever leave the house?

What pisses me off the most

[Thaelon]

Is that the people who paid less money to get the game via Steam don't have to have the cd/DVD in their drive. I paid $80 for the Collector's edition (I wanted the DVD), so I get the privilage of being required to have the fucking DVD in my drive to play the game.

Anybody found a no DVD crack for it yet?

Speaking of that I think I'll call Valve right now and about this....
Damn, no phone support; they tell you to go to steampowered.com and there's no phone # there.

I did a domain WHOIS but unfortunately their domain registrations are handled through some sort of third party domain proxy so you can't use the WHOIS information to actually contact the company who really owns the domain. How lame.

Re:Take a lesson

[the_bard17]

it isn't quite as big of a concern since they'll probably have their servers up for 5 or 8 years.

Which is fine, if at the end of the that period, they release a patch that kills the need for that authentication. Or earlier, preferably.

Just playing devil's advocate, though... I'm just as annoyed with this authentication as anybody else is.

Re:I just had a disturbing thought..

[daveman_1]

Hey kevb, you got me curious so I decided to perform an experiment for you... I disabled my internet connection and verified it didn't work. I then tried to open the game and play it. It worked... I already registered the game and stuff like that and have my CD in the drive, so I guess they figure I'm "ok"... Just thought you'd like to know. :-)