HL2 piracy and steam

fantasiser

fantasiser

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I just realized something.... CSS already has cracks to make it work, as well as all the older valve games, and its practically a sure bet that HL2 will get cracked as well.......

and i was just wondering, isnt steam providing and excellent pirate content delivery system?
say i make an account, and buy all the games right? Then i crack them all so i dont have to connect to steam to play. I logout of steam and give my username and password to my friend, HE downloads all the games, applies all cracks, done. Then he passes on the account, ad infinitum.

Pirates wont even have to find somewhere to download the game anymore, since steam will be providing them itself....


Now that just popped to my head for the first time about a minute ago when i was reading another thread about piracy and i wanted to ask, since i dont have any Valve games yet and am waiting for HL2 to come out, i dont have any experience with steam, so is there some sort of system to stop this from happening??????
 
I don't think there is something to stop that. My bro bought the silver package and I just log onto his accout and I downloaded CS:S and now I can play it whenever I want. But don't worry I'm buying retail.
 
Yes it's true, but I mean valve will already secure millions of sales, anyone serious about hl2, will buy it.
And if you want the full support it's worth buying.
Hell I bought gold.

Lets just say i'm one of them people that downloads a lot of games, but ALWAYS buys good games and supports the developers.
Hell Halo 2 has been on pre-order for me for months, yet i've already completed it ;).
 
I beileve HL2 and Cs:S are fully intergreted with steam and require steam to play, without steam it will fully 100% not work. This could be done multiple ways.
I believe all current Cs:S cracks still do need steam.
VAC2 could possibly take care of the Cs:S cracks.
 
Another thing....

I was able to log into steam under my same account at a friends house even though I was logged in at my house at the same time. I showed him cs:source?!?!

I though you couldn't be logged in on 2 computers at once, but I guess I'm wrong
 
Minerel said:
I beileve HL2 and Cs:S are fully intergreted with steam and require steam to play, without steam it will fully 100% not work. This could be done multiple ways.
I believe all current Cs:S cracks still do need steam.
VAC2 could possibly take care of the Cs:S cracks.
Click to expand...


As far as i know u dont need steam at all for the CSS cracked version, because it comes with a fake steam(?) or something like that.......
but even if they did it wouldnt matter, then people could play the cracked versions WITH steam using their own account, people would still be able to share the master account that has all the games on it to download then crack wouldnt they?
 
I think once VAC2 gets turned on it might end up being a lot harder to play CS:S and crack.

See, now the question is how many servers are going to turn on VAC2? If there are going to be a lot that don't, does Valve have a way of ****ing with crackers playing on the none VAC servers? Like, some way to force some kind of validation or something? I don't know. Maybe, maybe not.
 
i havent heard of VAC2 what is it?
but if its only for online play, then people will still be able to play single player campains wouldnt they?

this is why i dont really like steam, having a copy of a game linked to a steam account seems inherently insecure, what with account stealers, account sharing, and the problem i outlined at the start of the thread
 
Serial45 said:
Yes it's true, but I mean valve will already secure millions of sales, anyone serious about hl2, will buy it.
And if you want the full support it's worth buying.
Hell I bought gold.

Lets just say i'm one of them people that downloads a lot of games, but ALWAYS buys good games and supports the developers.
Hell Halo 2 has been on pre-order for me for months, yet i've already completed it ;).
Click to expand...

Is Halo 2 is as good as you or everyone thought it was going to be or was it kind of a dissappointment?
 
Danno, if you had a server. Would you want your server to have protection against people with hacks? And everything. Alot of people will have it turned on. Go on steam, go on counter-strike(not Source), and set it to Unsecure Only. There are barley any!
With VAC2 i suspect even less.
Then there is steam itself to detect stuff like that.
And you do have to validate HL2, and most likly and source game coming.

Also if enough gamers eventually do so, valve could take all the money they have, shut down steam and all support for the game and go live richely with no worries.
 
Trust me, valve put ALOT of thought into steam. Fanta you can try it, if you want. But I doubt it will work.
 
^^^
man ive already paid for my HL2, and im not really into all the other games that much, so i dont need to try it, and i dont plan to, i just thought i should mention it, since despite all your arguments i still see no reason why it wouldnt work apart from "valve is god steam rox0rz they will ass kick"
 
sure you can tell your friend your steam account and he can install all your games on his computer but as soon as he logs in you wil be logged out and all online gaming wil cease untill you log back in which will log him out. so dont think you can just be both logged in and playing at the same time.
 
Dear sir Romero,
Read the first post, if you already have, read it again.
If you still do not see the errors in interpretation you have made, consult an english teacher, they may recommend some comprehension practice.
This notice is no way an attempt to insult or degrade you.
Best regards,
The Fantasiser
 
What about IP address?

I would suspect that an account will get limited to a few ip adresses in a given amount of time. Say it's limited to 3, that's your place and a couple friends places, but when you try to log-on at a 4th place, it will fail the logon because the number of ips is exceeded.

This would allow legit users to play at a friends house, while not allowing the pirates to download to many, many computers with one account.

I'm speculating here, but would be VERY suprised if there isn't some sort of account-to-ip tracking on steam.

Diazo
 
That's why I mentioned "in a given amount of time". Because the modem is connected 24/7, even if the ip isn't truly static, it does change very rarely. So after some set amount of time when an IP address isn't used, it's dropped from the account and that slot opens up for a different ip address to be used with that account.

Of course, this is all speculation still, we'll know for sure in another 8 days.

Diazo
 
I really don't think Valve could stop people downloading from a friend's account then playing offline because as far as I know, once you've registered once you can download anywhere and play offline without ever needing to connect to Steam again once it's installed and in offline mode.

The only way offline mode would not work is if Steam had to login again or send some kind of check when you didn't know about it, but this probably won't happen because there'd be a lot of people out there annoyed if they had to get a one off net connection just to register HL2 the first time then 1 week down the line needed a connection again when Steam gave them a security prompt when their PC was not connected... which also defeats the whole 'offline mode' idea.

I think Valve know Steam won't stop piracy but I think they'll be happy with the sales they're currently getting (with the help of steam too). The main reason Valve use Steam is to distrubute easier, stop the game leaking early and to stop online cheats. Piracy on the other hand is going to be done anyway, wether it's through Steam or through a cracked download. Keeping the game leak-proof is enough to stop a LOT of early downloaders that won't buy later, plus people will want to play online which I can't see being crackable if you need to login and authenticate through steam servers. It's pretty much as good as it gets which is enough.
 
The CS:Source stuff you can download is for 'private server' use only, isn't it? I'm sure you can't play a haxor version on a real server...given that there are only about 120 CS:S servers, and thousands of haxor copies floating around, this is surely the case, no?
 
czrsink said:
The CS:Source stuff you can download is for 'private server' use only, isn't it? I'm sure you can't play a haxor version on a real server...given that there are only about 120 CS:S servers, and thousnads of haxor copies floating around, this is surely the case, no?
Click to expand...



I think Valve are turning a blind eye to the hacked CS:S at the moment to let the people that have pre-ordered the retail to have a go because right now it's exclusive to Steam orders only which would be unfair to the true fans that are going to buy the game but want some CS:S while they wait. Wether this is true or not we'll never know but once HL2 is release and VAC2 is active then we won't see as many (if any at all) cracked online players. Consider this a free trial :p

edit: Sorry I kinda mis-read your post, I don't you can play in secure servers with hax0r version no
 
Whenever you use any cracked version, you send Valve your IP and a nice big sign saying how you are pirating their game.

The only question is when they will move on it.
 
The funny thing is that I remember an email from gabe (in the official word from valve thread) where he seemed like he didn't know about the hacked version.

To answer some questions:
No, you don't need steam to run the cracked ver, just a steam logon

You can play on official servers

Yes, I'm buying HL2 (note future tense)

Don't flame me, I'm just clearing stuff up.
 
Varsity said:
Whenever you use any cracked version, you send Valve your IP and a nice big sign saying how you are pirating their game.

The only question is when they will move on it.
Click to expand...

not if you play single player on OFFLINE mode, then your not sending anyone your IP address
 
fantasiser said:
Dear sir Romero,
Read the first post, if you already have, read it again.
If you still do not see the errors in interpretation you have made, consult an english teacher, they may recommend some comprehension practice.
This notice is no way an attempt to insult or degrade you.
Best regards,
The Fantasiser
Click to expand...


yes i read your post but apparently you didnt read mine. you CANNOT PLAY ONLINE GAMES WITH THE SAME ACCOUNT ON 2 MACHINES AT THE SAME TIME. single player games get pirated all the time and hl2 is no exception.
 
and before you reply about cracked css playing on legit servers that only because vac isnt activated and theres nothing to verify the files on your computer are legit.
 
John Romero said:
yes i read your post but apparently you didnt read mine. you CANNOT PLAY ONLINE GAMES WITH THE SAME ACCOUNT ON 2 MACHINES AT THE SAME TIME. single player games get pirated all the time and hl2 is no exception.
Click to expand...
Yeah, "no exception"... except for the fact it hasn't been pirated yet.
 
john romero said:
CANNOT PLAY ONLINE GAMES WITH THE SAME ACCOUNT ON 2 MACHINES AT THE SAME TIME
Click to expand...
Yes you can, during the css beta i downloaded the beta on my bros pc then on mine, we both connected to the internet with my account we just couldn't play in the same server because we have the same ip with a router, server just said that ip was allready in use, we were able to make a server and play lan with one account and we were able to play in different servers at the same time with one account. Steam just asks you to verify your password because it tells you your account is expired , you put it in a couple of times and there you go. If you don't believe me try it for yourself....Works for the released css as well..

As far as distributing your steam account, what your describing is the same thing as installing a friends cd for a game that he bought, installing it on your pc then downloading a no cd patch. Same principle. You don't own the game but can now play it without his cd. Piracy will probably never be stopped, steam just offers you different ways to own and buy games.
 
Why do people think valve is stupid, they obviously thought this true. You must sneak up on your prey, and when the time is right..take them.
 
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