The Boy Who Stole Half-Life 2

[Rossco]

Haven't seen this mentioned anywhere on the forums, decent wee article telling the story of what happened when the source code was nicked.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-02-21-the-boy-who-stole-half-life-2-article?page=1

[Kaido]

Cheers for that. Very interesting!

Nice to see a reported hacker actually having done some hacking for a change!

[charlesr]

It was mentioned twice in the Half Life news thread already but apart from that, nope

Interesting read.

[vanpeebles]

zomg haxxor. Nice to see fat gabe trying to lure him to the US for some prison bubba action.

[bash]

This would make a decent movie IMO, it could be made to be as interested as the The Social Network I reckon.

[InvisibleKid]

Really great article...

[endo]

Why did das old bill have to point guns at him when they nicked him? He was hardly a terrorist suspect. Journalistic exaggeration on the part of the writer?

[averybluemonkey]

The German police are a lot more heavy handed than the UK lot, a far greater percentage of the sign ups are military types who like to throw their weight around a lot.

I thoroughly disapprove of what the guy did but find Valve's reaction almost more distasteful, find it difficult to support a company that thinks that is an acceptable way to conduct themselves.

[Rossco]

Cant really see what they did wrong at all?

[Flabio]

I doubt it was Valve's idea to run a sting operation. The FBI probably said 'this is what we're gonna do'. You don't really tell them no.

[sj33]

Cant really see what they did wrong at all?

Well, I suppose it would be a bit like using a rocket launcher to kill that spider in the corner of the room.

[Link83]

Interesting article, thanks for posting

Well, I suppose it would be a bit like using a rocket launcher to kill that spider in the corner of the room.

...is there a better way?

[vanpeebles]

Well, I suppose it would be a bit like using a rocket launcher to kill that spider in the corner of the room.

EDF! EDF! EDF!

[averybluemonkey]

I doubt it was Valve's idea to run a sting operation. The FBI probably said 'this is what we're gonna do'. You don't really tell them no.

Of course they could have, I think you might be confusing the FBI with the mob. Their actions are morally reprehensible in my view and it really doesn't matter who's idea it was.

[Miguel007]

Just think, if he'd never owned up or tried to download Half-Life 2 - he might have still been sitting there on their servers looking for Half-Life 3 and watching what they were working on.