" Can I get something to eat before we leave?" asked Gembe.
"No problem," said one of the policemen."
Aww...what a nice police officer.
Game » consists of 18 releases. Released Nov 16, 2004
" @Ahmad_Metallic said:Most estimates are between 8 - 20 million units, including The Orange Box and digital sales. So yeah, HL2 is more popular than COD." @Toms115 said:oh, you're serious. yeah it sold a shit ton. "no seriously Edit: aight i looked it up and saw it sold well.. nevermind "" @Ahmad_Metallic said:
" i wasnt a gamer when that happened.. did HL2 not sell well ? "yeah they sold like three copies "
" @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. "I don't believe that's the case. By purchasing a PlayStation 3, I am availed to do what I wish to the actual device, so long as it doesn't involve altering what doesn't belong to me in the agreement (games, PSN), and as long as my activities remain private. By similar logic, if I buy Valkyria Chronicles, I am just as free to hack it as I am to actually play it, so long as I don't make my activities public, or infrige on SEGA's rights to sell the game to others. If I were to pirate the game, however, I am forbidden to do either, since I never purchased 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.
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.
" 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.
" @ArbitraryWater said:Valve also wasn't the billion-dollar juggernaut it is now. They were probably already in the red developing HL2, then they had to stop and rewrite portions of their code to prevent exploits, plus the theft revealed they were way behind already which was a major PR boondoggle. They hadn't released a game (that they developed themselves) since 1998, If hl2 hadn't been huge despite the massive delay and Steam hadn't taken off the company probably would have been well and truly fucked." 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:didnt cod sell well over 20 mil ?" @Ahmad_Metallic said:Most estimates are between 8 - 20 million units, including The Orange Box and digital sales. So yeah, HL2 is more popular than COD. "" @Toms115 said:oh, you're serious. yeah it sold a shit ton. "no seriously Edit: aight i looked it up and saw it sold well.. nevermind "" @Ahmad_Metallic said:
" i wasnt a gamer when that happened.. did HL2 not sell well ? "yeah they sold like three copies "
" 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.Wow, that was a cool story to read about!
" @Toms115 said:" @blueduck said: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. "" @Toms115 said:SONY: striking fear into those bastards who want do shit with the things that they bought. what a bunch of fucking heroes. "" @blueduck said: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! "" @EvilTwin said:that's what the pirates want you to think. "" @MrRedwine 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? "" @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. "
" @Siphillis said:COD 4 sold 13 million, while MW2 has estimates around 20 million units. HL2 numbers will increase while MW2 has pretty much stalled after Black Ops. Unfortunately, Steam does not tally digital sales. That said, MW2 has been sold for nearly full price for only two years, while HL2 has been bundled and discounted for 7 years." @Toms115 said:didnt cod sell well over 20 mil ? "" @Ahmad_Metallic said:Most estimates are between 8 - 20 million units, including The Orange Box and digital sales. So yeah, HL2 is more popular than COD. "" @Toms115 said:oh, you're serious. yeah it sold a shit ton. "no seriously Edit: aight i looked it up and saw it sold well.. nevermind "" @Ahmad_Metallic said:
" i wasnt a gamer when that happened.. did HL2 not sell well ? "yeah they sold like three copies "
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?
" 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? "The article says he tricked him into confessing through a phone call about getting him a job. When the authorities heard the confession they made their move.
" @blueduck said:Sure it does. In Bizarro World." @EvilTwin said: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. "" @blueduck said: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! "" 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. "
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