# Half Life 2 Source leaked
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-life-2-source-leaked/205144
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [October 2, 2003, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-life-2-source-leaked/205144 "2003-10-02T15:53:12Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2003, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-life-2-source-leaked/205144/1 "2003-10-02T15:53:12Z")
you fuckers! What the hell did you have to prove?
You know how long these guys at Valve have been working on this thing? 5 FUCKING YEARS. And months before it gets released, some fucknut releases the FUCKING source to the game.
Do you have any fucking comprehension what you just did or does your puny 12 year old mind not care about anything except how l33t your purile circle of friends think you are?
The only consolation from this is the fact that anybody stupid enough to do a thing like this is also probably stupid enough to get caught bragging about it. :mad: :mad: :mad:
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### Author:  [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2003, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-life-2-source-leaked/205144/2 "2003-10-02T15:59:24Z")
Argh, okay, I’ve calmed down a bit.
The facts:
7600+ files
32MB
last updated mid-september
Has EVERYTHING.
Physics code, client, server, shaders, etc.
Companies pay millions of dollars for this stuff and somebody decided it would be fun to put it on the web.
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### Author:  [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2003, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-life-2-source-leaked/205144/3 "2003-10-02T16:05:28Z")
Not like it’s Quake4 or anything.
Flame on!
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### Author:  [@minty\_green](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minty_green)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2003, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-life-2-source-leaked/205144/4 "2003-10-02T16:11:13Z")
Isn’t HL2 supposed to be open source anyway? You know, so the mod-makers can make their mods? Agreed that stealing it before Valve chooses to release it is reprehensible and criminal conduct, but I’m failing to see this as some huge thing to get upset about (unless you’re Valve, that is).
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### Author:  [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2003, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-life-2-source-leaked/205144/5 "2003-10-02T16:17:37Z")
Damn. That’s a lot of code.
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### Author:  [@Brutus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brutus)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2003, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-life-2-source-leaked/205144/6 "2003-10-02T16:18:00Z")
CD-Keys and WON registration should ensure healthy sales of L2, I would think. I know I just bought my second copy of HL, to keep getting my DoD fix…
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### Author:  [@jweb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jweb)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2003, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-life-2-source-leaked/205144/7 "2003-10-02T16:19:38Z")
Well, FWIW, I don’t think that’s necessarily a huge deal. Most (all?) games get cracked quickly anyway, so anyone that wants the game but isn’t willing to pay would still be able to get a free copy.
I’m guessing that most people that would buy the game off the shelf still will (I would, if I had a fast enough computer to run it). And for the 1337 k16613Z who would play cracked copies anyway, what’s the difference? What are they going to do, recompile the entire source?
just my $.02 anyway.
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### Author:  [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2003, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-life-2-source-leaked/205144/8 "2003-10-02T16:25:13Z")
update: It appears that the CD authetication code is in there as well. Given that the covers have most likely already been printed, this is going to cost them major $$$ to reprint everything.
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### Author:  [@refusal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/refusal)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2003, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-life-2-source-leaked/205144/9 "2003-10-02T16:25:40Z")
It’s source code, and it’s released months before the game comes out. It doesn’t take Hercule Poirot to suspect this was an inside job, either that or woefully incompetent security. Did somebody at Valve decided to leak the code: were they disgruntled employees? How many people had access to their CVS server or whatever they use to store the code? Haven’t they heard of passwords? Or did they just give the wrong CD to the wrong person? Valve deserve what they get for this.
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### Author:  [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2003, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-life-2-source-leaked/205144/10 "2003-10-02T16:25:44Z")
Seeing as how my knowledge of source code is as extensive as my knowledge of the mating rituals of the African tree sloth, could you explain how whoever put it on the net got the source code? I would imagine the code to be a pretty well guarded secret, and, as you pointed out, worth a ton of money. How could some idiot get their hands on it and put it out to the net?
And, IMHO, this kind of stuff is just the next step for those who think filesharing music isn’t a big deal. It’s just code after all.
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### Author:  [@carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrot)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2003, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-life-2-source-leaked/205144/11 "2003-10-02T16:49:18Z")
Is there a story on this? I searched the news sites, but didn’t get nothin’.
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### Author:  [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2003, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-life-2-source-leaked/205144/12 "2003-10-02T16:54:56Z")
I’ve searched everywhere and can’t find a single article and very little chatter. Either this is truly breaking news, or it’s another hoax.
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### Author:  [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2003, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-life-2-source-leaked/205144/13 "2003-10-02T17:03:33Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Valve deserve what they get for this.
Uh-huh. And when you forget to lock your front door, it’s okay if I swipe your telly? Idiot.
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### Author:  [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2003, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-life-2-source-leaked/205144/14 "2003-10-02T17:05:02Z")
Well, most companies are pretty lax in security. And it would only take one stolen laptop to lose the source code. Or some delivery guy walking off with a CD labeled “Final Release beta 3.0”. So this is believable. What’s not particularly believable is that code stolen “months before the game is released” is going to be bug-free or even playable. I imagine that they’re coding away pretty much up to the point where management grabs the code out of their over-caffeinated hands.
Still, if the CD authentication code and file formats are in there, I could see the need for reworking those in a hurry so that the pirated code can’t read files. So yeah, this could be a major headache for a company.
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### Author:  [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2003, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-life-2-source-leaked/205144/15 "2003-10-02T17:08:22Z")
[Slashdot](http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/10/02/1547218&mode=nested&tid=126&tid=127&tid=156&tid=172&tid=186).
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### Author:  [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2003, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-life-2-source-leaked/205144/16 "2003-10-02T17:50:41Z")
I’m up on planet Halflife right now and I see diddly.
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### Author:  [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2003, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-life-2-source-leaked/205144/17 "2003-10-02T19:32:44Z")
> [@](#):
>
> What’s not particularly believable is that code stolen “months before the game is released” is going to be bug-free or even playable.
They had a playable version of HL2 going at E3, and an even more up-to-date version about a month ago. They gave tech news agencies (like Tom’s Hardware) a bit of time to play around with that version to draw benchmark numbers from.
I’d be surprised if they don’t have all the level design and story already finished. At this point, they’d be in the post-production and bug-hunting stage.
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### Author:  [@Sterra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sterra)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2003, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-life-2-source-leaked/205144/18 "2003-10-02T19:39:44Z")
Its real. And they already found out who leaked it.
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### Author:  [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2003, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-life-2-source-leaked/205144/19 "2003-10-02T19:45:30Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Sterra \*
> \*\*Its real. And they already found out who leaked it. \*\*
Who, how, and where, please? Some of us have very limited access from where we are. ☹
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### Author:  [@carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrot)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2003, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-life-2-source-leaked/205144/20 "2003-10-02T19:51:19Z")
So, after checking **friedo** ’s link to Slashdot, and following one of the links in the story comments, I got to an overclocker site which claimed to be allowing downloads. However, in order to download it, you must _accept a license agreement_.
Does anyone else think this is just about the most ludicrous software requirement ever?
Anyway, it seems that the general feeling of the /.ers is that it’s the real deal, take that as you will.
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