"Valve have disabled 20,000 steam user accounts belonging to users who have been caught using a pirated version of the game, or have attempted to use a cdkey to bypass the securom protection found on the retail version of the game."

Causing a wave of people to allege that they are unable to play Half Life 2, with many claiming they have had their accounts disabled for no reason, Valve have disabled 20,000 steam user accounts associated with illegal copies of HL2. I think we all saw this coming: Valve have really pushed the whole copy protection thing this time, and somehow it sounds like the beginning of a new trend. Will lots of future game titles be subject to such harsh monitoring?

"The number of people who actually had bought HL2 and used the CD key cheat was VERY small. VERY small. Most people just tried to rip off the game and not bother buying it." - Valve spokesman.