should valvE be concerned?

[Detonator]

Just wondering....should valve be concerned since HL2 has been prematurely sold in some places....like maybe some warez people got it and are currently trying to crack it...after all, cs source was cracked by these people...
any thoughts?

 

[Jesus Lincoln]

No, they have about 4 days to crack the lock, its been locked for months and its impossible, no they shouldnt be concerned, it wont be broken

 

[Fliko]

I doubt they would crack, from what Valve has faced, i am sure they have better security, all versions of hl2 need to be authenitcated by Valve, by Nov.16, I doubt they could unlock it

 

[Reaktor4]

They cant because it doesnt contain all the files.

 

[Mr-Fusion]

I think we can safely say the hackers have been defeated on this front.

There is no pre-release playable version out at the moment.

 

[cojawfee]

If people were waiting for retail to crack it, they are retarded. The retail just puts the preload in your steam folder. It is the same as double clicking Half Life 2 in the coming soon section and clicking preload.

 

[[Dragoon]]

It'll be cracked open eventually no matter what - a 4 day head start is nothing.

 

[Vegeta897]

If people were waiting for retail to crack it, they are retarded. The retail just puts the preload in your steam folder. It is the same as double clicking Half Life 2 in the coming soon section and clicking preload.

EXACTLY.

Thankyou for posting that for everyone who happens to stop by this thread and read it.

 

[neozero]

CS: S has been cracked?

 

[Kouch]

CS: S has been cracked?

well more like "allowed to be cracked" by valve. As of now the cracked version can play online but that is because valve wants to creat a solid fan base for the new cstrike. They can easily create an authentication to make the cracked version useless since that is the whole point of steam.

 

[f|uke]

like maybe some warez people got it and are currently trying to crack it...after all, cs source was cracked by these people...
any thoughts?

Release groups always get copies early. Theres no stopping that. Someone somewhere knows a store manager willing to do them a favor. Besides the point. CS:S was never encrypted. HL:2 cannot be cracked because it is encrypted.

They will not be able to decrypt the files. The odds are astronomical, and even then there is a good chance key data is missing, to be downloaded during activation.

But once VALVe decrypts them so that people can play, HL2 will be cracked in a jiffy and distributed. That is innevitable and unstoppable.

 

[mzhang23]

css was only cracked after it was playable. Same will happen with HL2. Valve doesn't want to release HL2 early because:
a) cracked versions will show up before most stores start selling
b)it's a breach of the vivendi-valve hl2 contract.

 

[UKchaos2]

The content on the CDs is freely available on Steam. The only difference is that the Cds come with a passkey which can be entered into Steam to authenticate the purchase. Your basically paying for the passkey, the data is just there for convience (no need to download).

Oh and remember Valve can detect cracked versions and stop them from being used by patching Steam.

 

[Grand Architect]

Release groups always get copies early. Theres no stopping that. Someone somewhere knows a store manager willing to do them a favor. Besides the point. CS:S was never encrypted. HL:2 cannot be cracked because it is encrypted.

They will not be able to decrypt the files. The odds are astronomical, and even then there is a good chance key data is missing, to be downloaded during activation.

But once VALVe decrypts them so that people can play, HL2 will be cracked in a jiffy and distributed. That is innevitable and unstoppable.

I'm just going to quote this and clame it as my own, and add that they have had the preload files to tinker with for a few months now. If they have not cracked them by now they are not going to before the 16th.

 

[Yombi]

css was only cracked after it was playable. Same will happen with HL2. Valve doesn't want to release HL2 early because:
a) cracked versions will show up before most stores start selling
b)it's a breach of the vivendi-valve hl2 contract.

yay!!! a new-commer to the forums that understands.

*gives mzhang a cookie*

 

[Janet Reno]

It'll be cracked open eventually no matter what - a 4 day head start is nothing.

no it won't, haha!

 

[UKchaos2]

You gotta admit though, its hard to fathom that HL2 wont be pirated at all.

 

[[Dragoon]]

Nothing can stop piracy. Even Steam. Pirates will just find a way to create their own servers to play on, and bypass Steam completely. Singleplayer would be even easier, as all they'd need to do is get HL2 to work without authentication (probably a pretty simple task), and stop it from contacting Steam - Also very simple.

I in no way advocate piracy, but you gotta admit there are a lot of bright people out there who are more than willing to try to figure out how to crack it.

 

[Fliko]

They have all the files on disk, just needs authentication, if you could break into Valve, and fight crowbar to crowbar with Gabe, well, i think that if you won, he would let you authenticate it, like he would have much choice, but first, you would have to face the Hl2 Fanatics
EDIT: Its alot harder then it sounds, Half-Life needs steam to run, they would need to make a duplicate of steam that connects to a fake steam server, harder then it sounds, they would probably have to hack through the encrpyted(sp?) files to even code that, in 3 days, it would be nearly impossible to do it without using a super computer in 3 days

 

[azz0r]

It really depends on the exe.

Does the disk install put the files and then checks on Steam to see if its ready to activate.

Or does it offload the gfcs and checks - if steams says its ok to activate it then de-crypts.

If its the first, hackers just have to edit the exe to not check steam