I read this today and it is really good story and worh reading.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-02-21-the-boy-who-stole-half-life-2-article

Very entertaining read, thanks. I can't believe how many people incriminate themselves, I just would have assumed before reading stuff like this that hackers were smart, and therefore would not do stupid things. But as he says, he was naive. A sad story, as it could have turned out not to be such a big event in his life if only he had been the least bit careful. I'm sure the excitement was not helpful in thinking clearly, though.

Man, I still remember the story. Our games magazine even ran a (hilarious) article about the whole affair, and even got hold of an illegal copy of the "game" from a russian underground market. In the end, they concluded that the "team" that got hold of the code was nothing less than an elite group of hackers, hacker ninjas if you will, and they coordinated their plan with great precision and skill. Okay, this was written in a tongue-in-cheek attitude, but they didn't know at the time. It market the whole situation even more hilarious. Anyway, thanks for sharing that, great article. I feel a little sorry for the guy, but you know, he played with fire, and (as far as I'm concerned) the FBI had every right to try to get him. Lucky, lucky guy.

Interesting read. It was quite surprising to see some sanity from the German police and justice system; the guy was quite lucky they got to him first so that he was actually able to go on and live a normal life rather than being trampled by what passes for a justice system here in the US.

Also a rather interesting (and sad) lesson in there for other hackers in a similar situation- put any thoughts of remorse or honesty aside, as those things will only screw you over. It's quite disappointing to see the "victim" and law enforcement behave more like sociopaths than the criminal.

That's awesome!

Windows security. Lol.

I like to see that people can cause problems like this for such big companies, What can I say I like to see the big fish squirm.

So let me get this straight... if somebody pirates a GOG game you are ready to string them the fuck up & let them rot, but if somebody pirates a game made by Valve (and god knows hpow many other people as he basically admitted that he stole keys to basically any game he wanted to play) you are happy that he basically got off scott free? News flash people... just because Valve run steam (which I still don't understand why you people have a problem with Steam... but nevertheless) doesn't mean that they derserve to be ripped off like that.... how would you feel if somebody pirated a game that you had spent 5 years working on... probably not too happy.

It's hypocritical, but unavoidable.

I'm not ready to string either person up. Just saying.

this is about the guy who stole Half-Life 2 and delayed it right?

He didn't delay anything they were a year behind schedule already because they're lying weasels. Gabe was embarrassed to be caught in his lie, don't believe the bullcrap that he was about to fess up.

THIS.

Well, if we're talking in absolute terms, yes, he delayed the whole project. The team had to be inspected, the whole system had to be checked, and they got a bit demoralised if they weren't already because they were way behind schedule. But like orcishgamer wrote, they were lying about the release date anyway, even though they knew there was no way to finish the game by that time.

Not that I want to string anyone up in the first place but his hilarious stupidity alone is a little more endearing than the typical pirate.