What this means for us is an uphill battle against cheat coders who have copies of the source and can use it. Most cheats break plenty of laws as it is and cheat makers will care little if they break a few more.
Anti-Cheat coders on the other hand cannot touch the code for obvious reasons, we are legally distributing our products and want to continue to do so. We in no way want to incriminate ourselves or harm Valve, on the contrary our Intelligence division has been passing what information we have to Valve, as well as contacting ISPs to get mirrors of the source taken down. I agree with illogic insofar that it would be very useful if 3rd-party AC developers were provided with slightly more detailed information than what is available in the SDK. The crux here is that Valve could never just "let us use the stuff that's swimming around the internet", they would have to do so separately and considering the current situation at Valve, this is anything but likely. When you consider how that Valve has dealt with all AC issues in house in the past, this step seems even less likely. Those list members who remember PunkBuster and what followed will be able to confirm this. This would even be slightly saddening if it were anything new, but we've got used to this state of affairs. Vampire UA guy >-----Original Message----- >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Phantom >Sent: 04 October 2003 19:40 >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Subject: Re: [hlcoders] RE: RELEASE HL2 ASAP TO MINIMISE THE DAMAGE ? > > >The problem with releasing a demo is that you would then have >the source AND >assets out in the world, which far from solving the problem >could well make >it worse as now insted of code which you can compile and look >at you can >suddenly run, insert break points etc and learn a LOT more >about how it all >interacts. > >Anti-cheat coders shouldnt touch this code at all for certain. >Use of this >code isnt allowed, no execptions. Its stolen property and >should be treated >as such. Using it to stop cheats would be like a car alarm >maker getting >hold of a stolen car and using it to work out how to stop ppl >stealing them, >while the end might be a good one the use of stolen property >undermines it >all. You infact contradict yourself in the end of that >statement, if the >anti-cheat coders respected Valve and their code they wouldnt >touch it with >someone elses 1000ft bargepole. > >----- Original Message ----- >From: "illogic" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Sent: Saturday, October 04, 2003 4:16 PM >Subject: Re: [hlcoders] RE: RELEASE HL2 ASAP TO MINIMISE THE DAMAGE ? > > >> Not sure if this has been mentioned, but what if you release >a demo, one >> multimap, the e3 demo perhaps? that way its all technology >that has been >> seen, and you can begin to see what kind of cheats, hacks >and other things >> that come out, to sort of get a perspective of what the >hacking community >> can and will do with the code? >> >> What im wondering is what the coders will do with the >source, ie coders >like >> cheating death, other programs like that that help battle >cheating, what >> does this mean for them? im wondering if use of source code >for this type >of >> situation could be allowed? maybe help the community work with you >fighting >> cheats? online form, signing something, im not sure of the >legal issues >> surrounding that. Im just thinking if its for cheats, they >dont care, but >> for someone that is trying to help prevent cheats, they >would of course >> respects valve and its code. >> _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders
