Adventure Forums - HL2 Source code leaked, all goes to hell?

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Wow, the FBI has been brought into the whole manner. Whoever did it will get the book thrown at them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phil25

Wow, the FBI has been brought into the whole manner. Whoever did it will get the book thrown at them.

I can't help but hope that it hurts.

:(

Even though I'm not much of a Half Life fan, and I've never considered getting HL2, I realize the implications of this, and am quite pissed that some people even tried to do this...robbery...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phil25

Wow, the FBI has been brought into the whole manner. Whoever did it will get the book thrown at them.

Phil, I absolutely hate it whenever someone posts these kinds of news and neglects to include the source. Links, please?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phil25

Wow, the FBI has been brought into the whole manner. Whoever did it will get the book thrown at them.

I sure hope so. It's going to be hard to assess any sort of relevent damages to the whole situation, but hopefully they'll at least catch the guy in charge of the operation.

Quote:

Originally Posted by remixor

I sure hope so. It's going to be hard to assess any sort of relevent damages to the whole situation, but hopefully they'll at least catch the guy in charge of the operation.

Another update by Gabe:

Quote:

1) We've taken our network connection down to pretty much a minimum. We're still finding machines internally that have been compromised.

2) The suite of tools that the attacker was using included the modified version of RemotelyAnywhere (basically a Remote Desktop-style remote admin tool), Haxker Defender (a process, registry key and file hiding tool), the key logger, and various networking utilities that allowed them to transfer files (compressors, NetCat, and FTP). We also are pretty sure they were sniffing our network to gather passwords and other information. Haxker Defender includes a file system driver that allows an attacker to have stuff on your machine that is invisible, unless you do something like mount the drive under another OS that has NTFS support.

We have determined one way of detecting some infected machines, which is using a connection viewer to detect connections to anomalous hosts external to our network.

We still don't know their entry method.

3) In general, the community has been remarkably swift at tracking down the sources of the leak. What would be most helpful now are IP addresses of the people who were responsible for the intrusion or for the denial of service attacks.

4) Also, please continue to send in URLs of websites hosting the source code. We've been contacting people and asking them to take it down.

5) There's anecdotal evidence that other game developers have been targeted by whoever attacked us. This hasn't been confirmed. We've been providing other game developers with more detailed information about the exploits and evidence of infiltration.

6) We're running a little bit blind with our network shut down, but it seems like some of the press has picked up the story. I've been fielding calls from the mainstream non-games, non-technical press.all day. Hopefully they will get to report shortly what a mistake it is to piss off a whole bunch of gamers and get them hunting you around the Internet.

For any information related to this, please send it to [email protected], or you can always send to [email protected] as well.

And yeah, the FBI has been brought into this, I saw a picture of a myg0t(the cheating clan) chatroom, where one of them had gotten a phonecall from Gabe, stating that he wanted him to talk to the FBI. Can't link, cause I really don't remember where it's from.

good to see the fbi involved imho. this is a series matter, and undermines the creative process, not to mention the great white hope of gaming.

Quote:

Originally Posted by twifkak

From what I've seen, they've got some unique and impressive AI and animation assets (dude, the whole "27 face muscles" or whatever.. impressive shit). No one can obviously get away with stealing it, but since the code is "out there" now, licensing it will look less attractive, simply because of the subconscious appearance that the features in Source will make their way into other licensable engines. That is, while you don't have to steal it, you can bank on buying a cheaper engine that used it as "inspiration."

What I mean is, those features in the HL2 engine aren't something that half the programmers in the industry doesn't know how to do. It's a matter of actually doing it, and making it work. Although a peek into the source code might give other developers ideas, if you start now it might still take a year or something (I guess?) to create an alternative, stable version of those ideas. I maintain that developers will still want to license Source.

No doubt many programmers will look at the code and learn from it, just like many engine programmers learned their job through Carmack's code. I mean, let's face it... the code is out in the open, and many programmers will be tempted to download it. But I doubt the programmers at Epic or ID will find it useful.

Of course, this is just my (somewhat educated) guess. Still, a HUGE setback for Valve. I hope they put the f***er in jail.

That sucks.... :frown:
And it was the first FPS that I actually waiting for...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marek

Of course, this is just my (somewhat educated) guess. Still, a HUGE setback for Valve. I hope they put the f***er in jail.

But who's to say Source's potential customers will be as educated as you? OK, well, they probably are... :P But if they weren't, Valve would have lost some customers! I say subpeona everybody caught downloading the code! :P

Anyone notice the general condemnation of the perps in this thread, while the thread on piracy contained much more mixed opinions of the perps?

Source code vs. binary, Titan.

Oh, and while you're here. Re: the comment that I might be a Pinko: If Adam Smith can't get me a decent jazz station in Washington, D.C., then screw him. :7

Quote:

Originally Posted by Titan

Anyone notice the general condemnation of the perps in this thread, while the thread on piracy contained much more mixed opinions of the perps?

True, although there's a big grey area when it comes to this subject.

--Erwin

I really seldom bullshit myself about the nature of digital theft. Yes, it is the same as 'walking into the store and palming it from the shelf,' thank you Britney Spears for the analogy. I am a freakin' thief - but since I have no scruples, it is all the same to me. Yet this particular case pisses me off. If theft of full finished games is comparable to pick-pocketing, the theft of the source code is analogous to a lobotomy.

Or, to extend Britney's brilliant analogy - normal software piracy is analogous to stealing a finished music CD from the shelf, but stealing source code is equivilent to stealing all the multi-track studio recordings, allowing you to make your own remixes. Or something.

BTW, has anyone found any sites where the weapons and enemies are broken down from within The Code? I would just like to take a peak out of morbid curiosity...
(moi) :shifty::pan:

(Note that this is in no way regret shown as conventional panning, rather it is an announcement of feeling wicked wicked.)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Huz

Or something.

Well, it's better than Kingz'.

And no, it's a lot more like purchasing a CD, opening it, encoding it in mp3, resealing it in plastic, and returning it to from where you purchased it, offering to do the restocking/re-inventorying work yourself.

Quote:

Originally Posted by twifkak

Well, it's better than Kingz'.

Damn you, you evil wanker! My analogy is the best one so far!

Quote:

More on Half-Life 2 Source [October 04, 2003, 3:29 PM EDT]
Game Biz Mystified by Code Theft (thanks Mike Martinez) and Half-Life 2 code leaked online (thanks Thor) have a mainstream reports on the Half-Life 2 code situation. Meanwhile, Shacknews has more on the situation from Valve's Gabe Newell:

1) We've taken our network connection down to pretty much a minimum. We're still finding machines internally that have been compromised.

2) The suite of tools that the attacker was using included the modified version of RemotelyAnywhere (basically a Remote Desktop-style remote admin tool), Haxker Defender (a process, registry key and file hiding tool), the key logger, and various networking utilities that allowed them to transfer files (compressors, NetCat, and FTP). We also are pretty sure they were sniffing our network to gather passwords and other information. Haxker Defender includes a file system driver that allows an attacker to have stuff on your machine that is invisible, unless you do something like mount the drive under another OS that has NTFS support.

We have determined one way of detecting some infected machines, which is using a connection viewer to detect connections to anomalous hosts external to our network.

We still don't know their entry method.

3) In general, the community has been remarkably swift at tracking down the sources of the leak. What would be most helpful now are IP addresses of the people who were responsible for the intrusion or for the denial of service attacks.

4) Also, please continue to send in URLs of websites hosting the source code. We've been contacting people and asking them to take it down.

5) There's anecdotal evidence that other game developers have been targeted by whoever attacked us. This hasn't been confirmed. We've been providing other game developers with more detailed information about the exploits and evidence of infiltration.

6) We're running a little bit blind with our network shut down, but it seems like some of the press has picked up the story. I've been fielding calls from the mainstream non-games, non-technical press.all day. Hopefully they will get to report shortly what a mistake it is to piss off a whole bunch of gamers and get them hunting you around the Internet.

For any information related to this, please send it to [email protected], or you can always send to [email protected] as well.

Blues News

You know, doesn't it just make you think of these developers (in general) as absoulute f@#ked up morons to think they're supposed to post every gawd damn minutely detailed thing about what they're doing with their game projects? In essence it's like U.S. intelligence posting their covert strategies on the 11 o'clock news. Seriously, if Valve or any other dev were really truly and direly careful and protective of their stuff they'd STFU and work more stealthily, shutting their doors as well as their network to the oustside world until the product has at least gone gold. They've come this far with a major milestone game being worked on secretly, only to ruin it by releasing not some info, but practically every damn crevice about the game - too much information! On top of this I suspect that in their cockiness they've forgotten that their network has suddenly become prime target (I'm not at all surprised) for such a white hot commodity that HL2 has turned out to be.

I don't give a rat's ass damn if my fellow gamer wants to know every single microscopic detail about, for example, HL2. But if it's at the expense of some dickhead using someone's email address at Valve to maliciously spread lies, or what just happened with this hacking and stealing, I blame the gaming public and the stupid media just as much as the developers themselves. This was not just theft, this was a collaborative effort in which the victim was also partly the perpetrator. http://www.gamers-forums.com/smilies/cwm/3dlil/mad2.gif

Quote:

Originally Posted by twifkak

Source code vs. binary, Titan.

Oh, and while you're here. Re: the comment that I might be a Pinko: If Adam Smith can't get me a decent jazz station in Washington, D.C., then screw him. :7

Pragamatically, I cede yours and others point of the releative effect of source code stealing and finished product piracy. And all the analogies are good illustrations as far as I'm concerned.

Philosophically however, souce code w/out binary is a hobby, not a game. Granted the translation/compilation step is an afterthought, but someone had to originally toil to develop this mechanism.

Good rejoinder twifkak, to the pinko comment. I have the same problem and sentiments concerning the lack of any good jazz station in the so-called 'live music capitol of the world' here where I live. I'd settle for more dead on jazz anyday.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Titan

Good rejoinder twifkak, to the pinko comment. I have the same problem and sentiments concerning the lack of any good jazz station in the so-called 'live music capitol of the world' here where I live. I'd settle for more dead on jazz anyday.

I'm glad to see you took that in good spirits. :) I wasn't sure if that'd come off mean.

OK, well, I intended it to be a little incendiary, but you're the better man for not taking the bait. :P

Yeah... Napster's my jazz station... Just kidding! :) Actually, it is -- well, Kazaa and Soulseek, but same diff.

Nope! Kidding again!
Got you there, didn't I?

Philosophically however, souce code w/out binary is a hobby, not a game.
Not quite sure what you mean... Either way, it's a piece of "intellectual property," whatever that means.