S
superbeexotc
Guest
For those of you who understand why HL2 will likely be further delayed due to the source code leak, you don’t have much reason to read any further.
**********************************
There seem to be a significant number of people griping about the possibility/fact that HL2 will be further delayed. Regardless of whether or not Valve and Vivendi Universal were, or are lying to the public about how much of the source code and actual game was stolen, they would be doing so for the sake of their stockholders. Remember that shareholders own the company.
This could potentially be the end of Valve! It appears that some of the source that was stolen was licensed code from other companies. The fact that the third party code is now floating about in public leaves Valve and Vivendi vulnerable to lawsuits for damages such as lost revenue for those companies. This is a very serious matter.
Additionally, the fact that the code (apparently well commented by the programmers) for Steam and HL2 are out there means that any malicious hacker (just about everyone who wanted the source code now has it) could find ways to exploit it. I don't mean cheaters, I mean MALICIOUS hackers. ->
Think of the buffer overflow exploits used to gain access to Valve's network, and the MSBlaster worm which annoyed many of us a few months ago. Neither was very elegant or technically advanced. The MSBlaster worm could have been a million times worse, if it didn't restart the infected computer, it may not had been found until it really had time set itself up to do major damage. Luckily, MSBlaster and others that followed were not intended to destroy computer systems (Blaster was mainly a taunt towards Microsoft).
Publicly available schematics of the inner workings of Valve's file delivery system would obviously have very serious ramifications if Valve continued to use such code. That is why they must rewrite the code for release (duh).
Let’s hope that Valve doesn’t get sued over the third party source code that was leaked along with Valve’s source code. Valve seems to have joined a class action lawsuit against Microsoft, and perhaps Microsoft will be held responsible for damages caused by the security holes in its software (not using a firewall sure seems stupid now, doesn’t it?)
Just be thankful that Valve and Vivendi are aiming April, more so if it is released for Christmas. This whole thing is about much more than the game, and it could have easily ended up dead.
**********************************
There seem to be a significant number of people griping about the possibility/fact that HL2 will be further delayed. Regardless of whether or not Valve and Vivendi Universal were, or are lying to the public about how much of the source code and actual game was stolen, they would be doing so for the sake of their stockholders. Remember that shareholders own the company.
This could potentially be the end of Valve! It appears that some of the source that was stolen was licensed code from other companies. The fact that the third party code is now floating about in public leaves Valve and Vivendi vulnerable to lawsuits for damages such as lost revenue for those companies. This is a very serious matter.
Additionally, the fact that the code (apparently well commented by the programmers) for Steam and HL2 are out there means that any malicious hacker (just about everyone who wanted the source code now has it) could find ways to exploit it. I don't mean cheaters, I mean MALICIOUS hackers. ->
Think of the buffer overflow exploits used to gain access to Valve's network, and the MSBlaster worm which annoyed many of us a few months ago. Neither was very elegant or technically advanced. The MSBlaster worm could have been a million times worse, if it didn't restart the infected computer, it may not had been found until it really had time set itself up to do major damage. Luckily, MSBlaster and others that followed were not intended to destroy computer systems (Blaster was mainly a taunt towards Microsoft).
Publicly available schematics of the inner workings of Valve's file delivery system would obviously have very serious ramifications if Valve continued to use such code. That is why they must rewrite the code for release (duh).
Let’s hope that Valve doesn’t get sued over the third party source code that was leaked along with Valve’s source code. Valve seems to have joined a class action lawsuit against Microsoft, and perhaps Microsoft will be held responsible for damages caused by the security holes in its software (not using a firewall sure seems stupid now, doesn’t it?)
Just be thankful that Valve and Vivendi are aiming April, more so if it is released for Christmas. This whole thing is about much more than the game, and it could have easily ended up dead.