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Pretty easy to burn a cd, even protected ones.



HL2 requires an online verification process between a CD-Key and a user-registration before you can play. It is far more than a simple CD-Key check like your average CD-crack can prevent. Not only do you have to go online to verify your CD-Key but you must also download particular files that decrypt certain and unique files within the game before it is playable. You do not even have the entire game in a playable state on your CDs until you verify the key through the developer.

While it is possible for someone to share their CD-Key and login information only one of you will be able to play at once, and if the same key is used on a suspicious number of machines of significantly different hardware configurations (more than your average person would be upgrading) the game will be unplayable. And even if shared with one or two people online one may play at once -- not just online, but period. While the game does play offline, if your internet is active, it will communicate to Valve that you are playing even just single-player and Valve can see if someone else is playing single-player at the same time -- unless the two of your are playing with your internet unplugged.

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