Ban Hits Half-Life 2 Pirates

About 20,000 people have been banned from playing the Half-Life 2 game. Game maker Valve shut down the online accounts of the players because it had evidence that their copy of the game had been obtained illegally. Copies of Half-Life 2 had been circulating on file-sharing systems soon after it was officially released. Experts said the success of the Half-Life 2 anti-piracy system might tempt other game makers into creating their own version.

Ban hits Half-Life 2 pirates hard @ BBC News