Valve Post HL2 Warez to Bit Torrent? - 19.11.04

A poster on Filefront .com claims Valve have leaked a warez copy of Half-Life 2 to the Bit Torrent network, in order to identify the accounts of those who download it:

Recently, one of the HL2Files.com members here, alerted me of a pirated warez version of Half-Life 2, apparently released via the Bittorent network. I immediaely, forwarded this to Gabe Newell of VALVe Software. [The great man, we should all be thanking for Half-Life 2 :)].

A couple of hours later, Gabe replied with the following:

We're running a bit of an experiment. We're keeping track of the accounts that do this and will be shutting them off.

So, as you can see, VALVe Software have released a test "warez" version aimed at catching people out. These people will have their accounts deleted and will be banned from Steam.

Therefore, I strongly suggest that you DO NOT participate in these illegal activities as it would only lead to your own harm.

Full post

Note: This claim should probably be taken with a grain of salt as it's only the word of the filefront poster.

More info:
Slashdot | Valve Takes the Offensive on Warez Users?
Kotaku Fake Half-Life 2 game released to catch pirates
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