NDA was the wrong term to use there but I'm sure there was a "don't give the game to anyone" in there they might be enforceable. I hope they don't sue, though
I don't think Valve is going to do anything about a 20 year old beta being leaked.
Me neither but it's still a bold move
Honestly, knowing how easy it is for just about anyone to contact GabeN (his email is publically accessible) and that this was a previous tester, I would say there's decent odds they're already contacted someone to make sure or already had permission to do so in some roundabout way. I have no way of knowing for sure, obviously, but it is super weird for this to pop up without the finder messaging anyone in Valve about it.
I don't think the email of a CEO is a very private matter as you can probably very easily be found if you try hard enough. At least in comparison to telephone, home adresses etc.
I mean it's usually given name, surname + given name, initals and the domain.
So what? tim.cook@apple.com?
Actually the first result for "email ceo apple" gives me the result
What is Tim Cook's email address? Email Tim Cook care/of Apple, tcook@apple.com (Direct) or media.help@apple.com (Media/Public Relations). 🤝 How do I meet Tim Cook?
Some organizations will setup a Honeypot/blackhole CEO email using common corporate email designs, then the actual CEO email will be something else entirely. One organization I worked at the CEO email was a actually just a randomized string
But in the case of Valve, Gabe Newell has generally encouraged people to email him which is unusually open compared to many companies whose leadership will ignore or even threaten anyone who stumbles into their inbox
That is certainly true, I guess I needed to specifically call out that he actually does reply. And this has been a constant recurring "rediscovery" every few years that GabeN personally responds to that email.
That also wasn't the particular point I was even talking about. The point was that a previous dev would most likely still have connections inside Valve given how easy it is for outsiders. And that even if they had zero connections, again, it would be super easy to get a response.
This is all just speculation, but a relatively confident one.
NDA was the wrong term to use there but I'm sure there was a "don't give the game to anyone" in there they might be enforceable. I hope they don't sue, though
I don't think Valve is going to do anything about a 20 year old beta being leaked.
Me neither but it's still a bold move
Honestly, knowing how easy it is for just about anyone to contact GabeN (his email is publically accessible) and that this was a previous tester, I would say there's decent odds they're already contacted someone to make sure or already had permission to do so in some roundabout way. I have no way of knowing for sure, obviously, but it is super weird for this to pop up without the finder messaging anyone in Valve about it.
I don't think the email of a CEO is a very private matter as you can probably very easily be found if you try hard enough. At least in comparison to telephone, home adresses etc.
I mean it's usually given name, surname + given name, initals and the domain.
So what? tim.cook@apple.com?
Actually the first result for "email ceo apple" gives me the result
Some organizations will setup a Honeypot/blackhole CEO email using common corporate email designs, then the actual CEO email will be something else entirely. One organization I worked at the CEO email was a actually just a randomized string
But in the case of Valve, Gabe Newell has generally encouraged people to email him which is unusually open compared to many companies whose leadership will ignore or even threaten anyone who stumbles into their inbox
That is certainly true, I guess I needed to specifically call out that he actually does reply. And this has been a constant recurring "rediscovery" every few years that GabeN personally responds to that email.
That also wasn't the particular point I was even talking about. The point was that a previous dev would most likely still have connections inside Valve given how easy it is for outsiders. And that even if they had zero connections, again, it would be super easy to get a response.
This is all just speculation, but a relatively confident one.