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sPaG
Guest
In a post here regarding IP's being transmitted to VALVe, I came across this ignorant post and would like to clear a few things up with you people who think you are "anonymous" on the internet.
Ohhh, quite the contrary. Look kid, do your research before you go making uneducated posts on this subject matter. Let me help you...
Half-Life 2 or any other form of digital medium is protected by the DMCA. (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) Signed into law by President Bill Clinton on October 28th, 1998. The DMCA protects the intellectual property of the original author(s) work in ANY medium. This includes, music, movies, and even more so... video games.. especially source code and working (warez) video game distributions.
You can read the official DMCA PDF document here.
Furthermore, a federal judge ruled (back in January) the RIAA and MPAA was granted authority to subpoena ISP's due to copyright violations protected by the DMCA. Verizon was the first ISP, required BY LAW, to release personal information to these corporations and has officially appealed the ruling but has failed to overturn.
I would also like to point out that Half-Life1, Half-Life2, and all games modded on this engine are now updated to use the latest Steam System by VALVe. As an Information Systems analyst and Programmer, I spend my entire life and career working in this industry. Aside from the company I work for, secure, and develop for, I also have a personal home network with dual firewalled systems and can verify "Outbound Network" access is required to play Half-Life games over steam. Whether you like it or not, your IP is being sent to the VALVe Steam Auth servers upon running Half-Life, and quite possibly Half-Life2. Again, I re-iterate, their games are specifically built in this manner.
Now, does this mean they will do anything to you? Actually, no.. probably not. Unlike the RIAA or the MPAA, VALVe has nothing to really "lose". (At least, not in the sense the RIAA does) They are going to make money off this product whether you like it or not. Where as, the RIAA/MPAA is losing money daily, monthly, and yearly. They are desperate and resorting to other tactics to "scare" or bully their own consumers in to submission. Irony it seems, they have declared war on the very lifeblood of their business. This does not apply to VALVe, as they are in the business of designing games and are still working on their "investment" to generate capital. They are in no way, as desperate as the RIAA/MPAA to take such drastic measures against people who have download the Half-Life2 Demo, even IF it is transmitting IP's to the Steam Auth servers.
So can VALVe really do anything to people with just an IP address? Yes they can. Just as the RIAA and the MPAA did and do. It is the same thing and even worse in my opinion. the DMCA gives them this right and the federal court has officially, legally, and permanently (until appealed and overturned) granted organizations or companies like VALVe to subpoena providers and fully press charges.
But VALVe wont do it. They know, just as well as I do, that you are going to buy the game. The beta isn't a full working game anyway. Many of you are still not satisfied. Finding this information is incredibly easy. I have so many connections and experience "underground" it's blatently child-like easy to acquire Half-Life2 or any other form of digital medium. But like many of the very few out there, (Kudos to the rest of you who share my views.) I will not tamper with, run, or play this "hacked demo". It isn't "leaked". This was a theft, please address it accordingly.
In conclusion,
As much as I personally hate the RIAA and the MPAA and their blasted DMCA, I have always felt at war with them due to "censorship" on my rights to have digital copyrighted music or movies on my computer. This statement made without the assumption it's illegal; is irrelevant, but simply pointing out censorship spills over legal territory. For those who are interested.. you may join the cause in supporting the distribution of a new P2P technology called a "Brightnet" using the "OFF System" developed over at TheBigHack.org. The theoretical guidelines and system design are posted, and "WhiteRaven" is currently working on the official RPC protocol document and official software.
Digital Douwd formally wrote a letter to the RIAA insisting a the cease and desist of all law suits and distributing 16,000,000 US dollars to repay the consumers they litigated. They had a short timeline to comply before the deprecation of the RIAA and complete eradication of their assests and business models would be LEGALLY exploited. I would go in to this further, but this is not the time and place. And unfortunately, it's a whole new subject in itself.
If you are interested, please follow the links above. If you are intelligent, you will be able to understand it. Otherwise, I suggest you keep your uneducated opinions to yourselves before you go making "stupid" assumptions and statements on a highly unstable subject matter such as this.
It sure would be nice to see the look on your face when you were officially taken to court by VALVe, and saw I was right. But that probably wont happen.
Ohhh, quite the contrary. Look kid, do your research before you go making uneducated posts on this subject matter. Let me help you...
Half-Life 2 or any other form of digital medium is protected by the DMCA. (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) Signed into law by President Bill Clinton on October 28th, 1998. The DMCA protects the intellectual property of the original author(s) work in ANY medium. This includes, music, movies, and even more so... video games.. especially source code and working (warez) video game distributions.
You can read the official DMCA PDF document here.
Furthermore, a federal judge ruled (back in January) the RIAA and MPAA was granted authority to subpoena ISP's due to copyright violations protected by the DMCA. Verizon was the first ISP, required BY LAW, to release personal information to these corporations and has officially appealed the ruling but has failed to overturn.
I would also like to point out that Half-Life1, Half-Life2, and all games modded on this engine are now updated to use the latest Steam System by VALVe. As an Information Systems analyst and Programmer, I spend my entire life and career working in this industry. Aside from the company I work for, secure, and develop for, I also have a personal home network with dual firewalled systems and can verify "Outbound Network" access is required to play Half-Life games over steam. Whether you like it or not, your IP is being sent to the VALVe Steam Auth servers upon running Half-Life, and quite possibly Half-Life2. Again, I re-iterate, their games are specifically built in this manner.
Now, does this mean they will do anything to you? Actually, no.. probably not. Unlike the RIAA or the MPAA, VALVe has nothing to really "lose". (At least, not in the sense the RIAA does) They are going to make money off this product whether you like it or not. Where as, the RIAA/MPAA is losing money daily, monthly, and yearly. They are desperate and resorting to other tactics to "scare" or bully their own consumers in to submission. Irony it seems, they have declared war on the very lifeblood of their business. This does not apply to VALVe, as they are in the business of designing games and are still working on their "investment" to generate capital. They are in no way, as desperate as the RIAA/MPAA to take such drastic measures against people who have download the Half-Life2 Demo, even IF it is transmitting IP's to the Steam Auth servers.
So can VALVe really do anything to people with just an IP address? Yes they can. Just as the RIAA and the MPAA did and do. It is the same thing and even worse in my opinion. the DMCA gives them this right and the federal court has officially, legally, and permanently (until appealed and overturned) granted organizations or companies like VALVe to subpoena providers and fully press charges.
But VALVe wont do it. They know, just as well as I do, that you are going to buy the game. The beta isn't a full working game anyway. Many of you are still not satisfied. Finding this information is incredibly easy. I have so many connections and experience "underground" it's blatently child-like easy to acquire Half-Life2 or any other form of digital medium. But like many of the very few out there, (Kudos to the rest of you who share my views.) I will not tamper with, run, or play this "hacked demo". It isn't "leaked". This was a theft, please address it accordingly.
In conclusion,
As much as I personally hate the RIAA and the MPAA and their blasted DMCA, I have always felt at war with them due to "censorship" on my rights to have digital copyrighted music or movies on my computer. This statement made without the assumption it's illegal; is irrelevant, but simply pointing out censorship spills over legal territory. For those who are interested.. you may join the cause in supporting the distribution of a new P2P technology called a "Brightnet" using the "OFF System" developed over at TheBigHack.org. The theoretical guidelines and system design are posted, and "WhiteRaven" is currently working on the official RPC protocol document and official software.
Digital Douwd formally wrote a letter to the RIAA insisting a the cease and desist of all law suits and distributing 16,000,000 US dollars to repay the consumers they litigated. They had a short timeline to comply before the deprecation of the RIAA and complete eradication of their assests and business models would be LEGALLY exploited. I would go in to this further, but this is not the time and place. And unfortunately, it's a whole new subject in itself.
If you are interested, please follow the links above. If you are intelligent, you will be able to understand it. Otherwise, I suggest you keep your uneducated opinions to yourselves before you go making "stupid" assumptions and statements on a highly unstable subject matter such as this.
It sure would be nice to see the look on your face when you were officially taken to court by VALVe, and saw I was right. But that probably wont happen.
