Wirehead Studios

Saw this on PHL. Apparently, Valve released a "warez" version on the BitTorrent network so they can track down warez kiddies' IPs and ban them from ever using HL2/Steam again.

Very smart move against piracy, but brings up privacy concerns.

How much proof is there to back this rumor up? Doesn't sound like a Newell thing to me.. perhaps if some Valve marketing moron thought it up and put it in motion all by himself..

Do you not change your IP when you log on? or reboot your router etc?

It would be interesting if it's true.  I don't think there's any law against releasing a bombed version of your own intellectual property freely for the purpose of cracking down on piracy.  It's dirty and sneaky, yes, but so are the cheaters.  Cheaters suck, and only the warezers and cheaters (who are usually the same people) are getting shafted, so I've got no problem with it.  It certainly beats the RIAA's approach to dealing with piracy.

Well, there are the dynamic IPs that are given to internet subscribers by their ISP which can change, but there is also a hard-coded address on every network card produced which doesn't change, which is called a MAC address (Media Access Control). It is possible to block specific MAC addresses from trafficking across a network at the router level, so it's also probable that HL2/Steam bannings could use the same method of identifying warezers.

It's possible to spoof MAC addresses via most routers these days.

It's not even hard. My router has the option to broadcast its native MAC address, or to send a specific one of my choice.

anyone think that its so people dont just have to download on steam but can use bittorent which at times is probably way faster? afaik, you still have to have a steam account with hl2 enabled to even play it.

Check that first post again, Hedhunta. The version supposedly being transfered via BitTorrent is a "bombed version" that may be being used to track down software pirates.

Honestly, I think it's a great idea. Too bad there are always workarounds for IP bans.

For the record bittorrent is not faster than steam.

http://halflife2.filefront.com/news/;13907 (http://halflife2.filefront.com/news/;13907)


I would imagine this is shutting off the STEAM accounts for the offending persons, thereby preventing them from playing on the network.  Since the STEAM accounts track more than just IP or MAC address, I imagine that once shut off it'll be a bit more involved to reactivate them than just obtaining a new IP or changing a router's MAC address, especially if special registry entries or hidden files are placed on the computer.  You'd have to reformat AND do all of the above if you didn't know where to find the hidden entries.  Even if you could, you'd have fun re-registering, etc.  Someone might figure it out eventually, but for now that's one dirty trick and promises to put a crimp in the warez people's style.  Phoenix is pleased.

Shh... loose lips sink ships... or in this case, companies. Someone would find a workaround eventually, but did you really have to explain it in detail like that?

I think those who would attempt to go around this anti-piracy effort already know this, as they tend not to be idiots themselves.

Well, not in the "lack of intelligence" sense, anyway.

Well, the way I figure it is if someone reads this and thinks "Ooooh, I can get around it by reformatting my harddrive!!!" and it doesn't work then I've just scored a few for the good guys by making them reformat unnecessarily, but since they don't know if it will or will not work they're bound to try ANYTHING.  We get a page hit regardless, so either way I win.  ;)