Smooth Games Lashes Out

[rec]

After recieving some potentially threatening e-mail's from Valve lawyers, Smooth Games have decided to take a stand (even if an unsteady one), venting their anger and frustration.

Valve's lawyers have contacted smoothgames by official letter and have asked (threatened to take us to court in other words) us to remove all screen shots and all information regarding leaked/illegal files. We asked are they going after other (bigger) sites the same way? There are a bunch of sites using the HL2 information for all sorts of uses. Well these files are out there and they aren't going away, and if people do not know what these files are or if they could be harmful, who's gonna tell them valve?

If you're anti-Valve or pro-beta (for whatever misguided reasons), you'll probably love their entire idiotic rant.

 

[theGreenBunny]

Meh. Silly rant

 

[rec]

Indeed.

 

[Element Alpha]

I don't think it's wise to threaten fansites, even if they have stupid rants. It gives a really ackward feeling to the whole thing.

This reminds me of French singer Chantal Goya, who used to make children songs & stories. On a show on TV, about 10 years ago, she said she didn't like children, didn't like their company and usualy got annoyed pretty fast by them. Her 10-year career ended right there. She used to be one of France most famous.

And damn valve, let us know what's going on please. Right now all this sux big time! I don't care about autobuy, I don't care about beta screenshots, I'd rather have you let us know about the status of the game and/or steam readiness.

Come on Valve, PR a little...:imu:

 

[rec]

It's not a true "fan" site if it's promoting illegal material that potentially hurts the company they're apparent "fans" of.

 

[Element Alpha]

"Does a true fansite post pics of a game, even if they were obtained by illegal means?"

Indeed, this is open for debate. The meaning of the word "fan" is rather subjective, you must admit.



"Does it hurt the developer to have pics of it's unreleased game all over the internet?"


Now, I think it doesn't hurt them, but that's just my opinion. Only links to the material are foul play I think.
But, the more you take all the info away, the more all the kids will be looking for them, right?

 

[DreamThrall]

Call me picky, but when I'm reading an article on a website (other than a forum post, but that's a whole other story), I like it to sound educated - for example, not be overrun with grammatical errors and internet shorthand. Otherwise, it just sounds like some idiot mouthing off in a forum. Looks like this idiot got himself his own website. I'm sick of reading all this crap written by people who seem to think that Valve owes something to them. I'm not going to go on about my views about this whole situation, because everything's been said already... but the guys at "SmoothGames", all sound like complete morons.

 

[Aknot]

Hmmmm:

"their entire idiotic rant."

So just because someone has a different view or stance on a subject/topic, it is an idiotic rant?

Hmmmm So if CNN shows a clip from a stolen movie do they get a "letter". O wait that is NEWS.

Im from the mind that you are going to do what you are going to do. In these times to many people are blaming the wrong people. Just because I talk about the leak makes you want to "run out and DL it?" It is not my fault you are weak willed. To many people not taking responsibility. Me viewing screenshots or hearing about the "beta" did not make me want to DL it. I would DL because I wanted to know. I wanted to see the game. I wanted to see the weapons. Take some responsibility people. If I say there is a nude picture of Ronald Reagan are you going to run out and try to find it? Well some of you might.....

 

[Obz]

umm i doubt CNN would show copyrighted material.

Im not really bothered.. i downloaded the leak.. had a run a round.. got bored.. went back to CS..

Whats funny to me is the way people suddenly give a crap about copyright.. and anyone that posts screen shots etc is evil. EVERYONE on this forum downloads music for free, why shoud there be a difference with games / valve?

 

[Solidarnosi]

lol at Obz's avatar; funny you mention downloading music. I've avoided it for a while, but I'll go ahead and say it now just to contradict you: I have never downloaded music off the internet, sorry to disappoint you. I spent too many years as a struggling musician myself to take away any few pennies from artists (by artists I mean real musicians, btw, and not crapola hip-hop & ultra-pop a la Spears/etc - I'm not about to spend a penny for them to have $4,500 haircuts, and I laugh out loud at anyone stupid enough to give these kids any money at all. Isn't it nice to see where your hard earned money went?).

Similarly, I haven't touched any of the HL2 stuff - I want to be surprised by a fascinating story, interesting gameplay/physics, and whatever nice shocks they have in store for real fans.

 

[DreamThrall]

Originally posted by Aknot
Hmmmm:

"their entire idiotic rant."

So just because someone has a different view or stance on a subject/topic, it is an idiotic rant?

No, it is an idiotic rant because they sound like a bunch of idiots. If an idiot rants, it can then be called an "idiotic rant".

:cheers:

 

[Obz]

okay...

Maybe not ALL people on the forum.. But a bet a high percentage of people on this board have and do illegally download MP3s.

eg. Me reccomending that you go and illegally download music from this website - www.kazaa.com is somehow different from me posting a link to the sorce code.

 

[DreamThrall]

As far as comparing downloading music with downloading the beta, you're looking at the wrong points - most of the music that is downloaded is ripped off a CD, and therefore a finished product. I am a musician myself, and my feeling that the more people hear me, the better. I put my music on mp3.com and garageband where people can listen to them for free.

The beta is not a finished product. This equates to someone sneaking into a band's studio while they are still recording a CD and stealing a copy of the unmastered tapes, and then leaking THAT on kazaa. The problem here is:

Someone can steal your music/lyrics and publish them somewhere
Someone can "leak" the songs onto the internet, and everyone will hear the unfinished version - without the tweaking and smoothing

Or, if you want an example from another medium, think of stealing the a book from an author before they've finished writing it? Stealing parts of a movie before its done being filmed? You get the idea.

 

[Hyped]

I like how rec always has to put his worthless little opinion in "news" posts. It's always in the form of some snide little adjective or pompous comment. Does anyone remember how he "knew" there was no leaked build/pre-release and that anyone who thought so was "uninformed"? It's amazing how fast some people shut up when they're shown to be talking out their ass.

Is it really that hard to just post unbiased news? If you support valve to the point of fanatic fanboyism, fine, that's your prerogative. But for those of us who don't worship valve or consider them benevolent in all that they do, please spare us your pretentious opinion. Thanks.

 

[Kadayi]

I love the mp3 troll.

 

[Aknot]

Originally posted by DreamThrall
No, it is an idiotic rant because they sound like a bunch of idiots. If an idiot rants, it can then be called an "idiotic rant".

:cheers:

BUT who is to say they are idiots? Just because some one can not articulate their thoughts properly into writing does not make them an idiot. I believe an idiot is a foolish or stupid person, I can tag quite a few people with that but I dont.......

 

[ParaBellum]

They are idiots because they feel it is their right to post screenshots of illegal software.

 

[Obz]

I upgraded my PC in time for the Sep 30th Release.

I downloaded the beta so i could walk around the demos that i'd seen on the E3 vids.

Valve should have released a demo instead of giving us all these movies.

 

[Mint_Sauce]

I haven't touched the beta but I will say that I wish Valve would PR more. I mean I upgraded my machine spending money I don't really have just for this one game (sad maybe) and then to find out the next day that "hey, it's been delayed". I was disappointed and peeved off after spending all this money for no real reason. (Max Payne 2 was fun tho).

 

[JakeMan]

Originally posted by Obz
Maybe not ALL people on the forum.. But a bet a high percentage of people on this board have and do illegally download MP3s.

eg. Me reccomending that you go and illegally download music from this website - www.kazaa.com is somehow different from me posting a link to the sorce code.

The difference between DL music and DL beta is this; you download music in its full stage(not that big of a deal to me b/c record companys get a good 90% proffit from cd sales), but if you downloaded music in its beta stage (when a song is not complete) that is bull b/c the artist hasn't finished his work - so your opening the christmas present early and making mom feel bad when you KNOW its a sweater-... so by all means if you want d/l hl2 for free WHEN ITS OUT AND FINISHED.. but i recomend buying for the fulle experience.