" Can I get something to eat before we leave?" asked Gembe.

"No problem," said one of the policemen."

Yeah... I wonder what would have happened if he was able to get to Valve's offices and the FBI trap.

Good read.
Remember sitting at friends house trying out the source code, there was a lot of HL2 hype at that time. Seemed so unreal that we actually had it.
Weird reading the cause and thinking about the effect it had on my life on the other side of the world.

 'You are being charged with hacking into Valve Corporation's network, stealing the videogame Half-Life 2, leaking it onto the internet and causing damages in excess of $250 million, came the reply. "Get dressed.'

" @Ahmad_Metallic said:

" @Toms115 said:

" @Ahmad_Metallic said:

" i wasnt a gamer when that happened..  did HL2 not sell well ? "

yeah they sold like three copies "

no seriously   Edit: aight i looked it up and saw it sold well.. nevermind "

oh, you're serious.  yeah it sold a shit ton. "

" @blueduck: To give you a straight up answer, I believe that you only payed for the "licence" to use the console, you don't actually "own" it.  "

That's not entirely what happened.
 
He actually contacted Valve about getting a job citing his ability to steal their code. Thats how they caught him, he was arrested the next day or something i believe.
 
I know quite a bit about this story as he was part of an infamous Counter Strike Griefing team that used to hack CS games ALL THE TIME.
 
He was a punk kid and I hope he has repented as he was smart and he should use his knowledge for making money, helping society, and not being stupid.
 
It'd be cool though- if its true and he has repented (i'm sure he probably did, he was pretty young when he got caught and that can be pretty life changing for even a dumb kid) then he could become successful at real life networking security setups. Assuming he still studies and is allowed to touch a computer.
 
And yes, I read the article. It's slanted in Gembe (or however you spell his name) direction suggesting he wasnt really at fault for what he did. "He just did it because he loves Half Life."
 
Ya, maybe. But he was also a prick and this article tries to pretend otherwise. I still remember differently.

Dang, that was a great article.  
 
And lol - 

" I wonder what we would find if someone leaked the source code for Half Life 2 : Episode 3. 
...probably just an empty file with one comment - 

//game goes here eventually."

 
You know that the security around Half LIfe 3/episode 3 is probably incredibly intense after this, and think what would happen to whoever tries to steal it...
 

I've never really read in depth what happened with the HL2 source code link. Now that I know... so? It's clear that in the long run not much damage was done, Half Life 2 went on to sell like a billion copies and be revered in a way I have trouble understanding, German guy cleaned up his life but is probably still an internet hacker person, and Valve is still incapable of putting out games in any sort of reasonable time frame.

"

 'You are being charged with hacking into Valve Corporation's network, stealing the videogame Half-Life 2, leaking it onto the internet and causing damages in excess of $250 million, came the reply. "Get dressed.'

We were living in the fucking future. "

" I've never really read in depth what happened with the HL2 source code link. Now that I know... so? It's clear that in the long run not much damage was done, Half Life 2 went on to sell like a billion copies and be revered in a way I have trouble understanding, German guy cleaned up his life but is probably still an internet hacker person, and Valve is still incapable of putting out games in any sort of reasonable time frame. "

"

" Can I get something to eat before we leave?" asked Gembe.

"No problem," said one of the policemen."

   Aww...what a nice police officer. "

" @ArbitraryWater said:

" I've never really read in depth what happened with the HL2 source code link. Now that I know... so? It's clear that in the long run not much damage was done, Half Life 2 went on to sell like a billion copies and be revered in a way I have trouble understanding, German guy cleaned up his life but is probably still an internet hacker person, and Valve is still incapable of putting out games in any sort of reasonable time frame. "

It was a landmark piracy case, in which a game was stolen (not leaked or copied) a year before it hit shelves, from another continent.  It was also one of the most heavily pirated games of all time, with estimates of over 3-5 million copies.  Valve had to delay production of the game for months, shake down staff members, and re-purpose Steam as a DRM service instead of content delivery.  Much of the anti-piracy movement on the PC today stems from this incident. As for why Half-Life 2 is so revered, send me a PM if you want me to go into detail. "

" @Toms115 said:

" @Ahmad_Metallic said:

" @Toms115 said:

" @Ahmad_Metallic said:

" i wasnt a gamer when that happened..  did HL2 not sell well ? "

yeah they sold like three copies "

no seriously   Edit: aight i looked it up and saw it sold well.. nevermind "

oh, you're serious.  yeah it sold a shit ton. "

Most estimates are between 8 - 20 million units, including The Orange Box and digital sales.  So yeah, HL2 is more popular than COD. "

" For those of you pining for more "investigative" gaming journalism, Eurogamer posted a fascinating read detailing the infamous Half-Life 2 heist that took place in late 2003.  The story is told from both Valve's (through founder Gabe Newell) and Alex Gembe's, the young German hacker who has since been relieved of probation, perspective. 

" @Toms115 said:

" @blueduck said:

" @Toms115 said:

" @blueduck said:

" @EvilTwin said:

" @MrRedwine said:

" @blueduck:   No, you should not.  If you buy a BMW and then go on the road at 110 MPH, you are "doing what you want with something you bought", but we can all see this is not legal, not safe, and may be harmful to yourself and others.  The argument that you buying something gives you the right to do anything you want with it is bogus.  I can think of a million examples.  Buy alcohol and give it to minors, buy a gun and shoot at random cars, buy a taser and shock neighborhood animals... need I go on? "

Apologies, but that is a horrible analogy.  What you're saying is more akin to buying a PS3 and using it to beat someone to death with.  A better analogy would be opening the hood of your BMW and being able to put whatever engine you want in it.  "

See once again you've made another poor analogy! The law doesn't want you putting crazy engines in because you again could hurt someone ( now whether you agree with that is a different story) at least that's the logic they made the law with. How could you ever hurt someone with a jail broken ps3? "

that's what the pirates want you to think. "

Ha, yeah I know thank god for Sony because at the end of the day I know it has my properties best interests in mind! "

SONY: striking fear into those bastards who want do shit with the things that they bought.   what a bunch of fucking heroes. "

I don't think anybody is in any kind of clear right or wrong here. I don't support Geohotz on this battle because i see nothing good coming out of this for gamers. All i see if Sony wins they  fine the butt off geohotz and goes back to normal while piracy continues. Or Geohotz wins and Sony puts some crazy DRM program on the system. In both cases gamers will suffer and Geohotz started this. "

" @Siphillis said:

" @Toms115 said:

" @Ahmad_Metallic said:

" @Toms115 said:

" @Ahmad_Metallic said:

" i wasnt a gamer when that happened..  did HL2 not sell well ? "

yeah they sold like three copies "

no seriously   Edit: aight i looked it up and saw it sold well.. nevermind "

oh, you're serious.  yeah it sold a shit ton. "

Most estimates are between 8 - 20 million units, including The Orange Box and digital sales.  So yeah, HL2 is more popular than COD. "

didnt cod sell well over 20 mil ? "

didn't Gabe tricked the hacker by offering him a job at Valve but when he arrived in US jurisdiction, the authorities arrested him? Or is it another hacker who hacked Half-life 2 and also made a image of Alyx naked or is it, Axel's side of the story?

Interesting read.

" didn't Gabe tricked the hacker by offering him a job at Valve but when he arrived in US jurisdiction, the authorities arrested him? Or is it another hacker who hacked Half-life 2 and also made a image of Alyx naked or is it, Axel's side of the story? "

" @blueduck said:

" @EvilTwin said:

" @blueduck said:

" See once again you've made another poor analogy! The law doesn't want you putting crazy engines in because you again could hurt someone ( now whether you agree with that is a different story) at least that's the logic they made the law with. How could you ever hurt someone with a jail broken ps3? "

Fair enough, it wasn't worded quite correctly.  I didn't mean that you're able to stick a jet engine in your car and drive it on the street, just that you as a consumer have certain rights when it comes to a car that you own. "

Yes, but you still failed to prove your point with it. Your right is to do with your property as you please, it's America BRO. If it becomes at safety issue then a law will be passed to stop it. Also I am not attacking Sony's right to ban people from the Playstation network but I am saying they should stfu if I want to jail break my stuff. Also to be fair you can do whatever you want with your own car you just can't take it on public streets! "

the hacked playstation firmware update being the dangerous car and the public road being the internet where other people (Sony and it's workers) can get hurt. Sound pretty similar to me. "