Steam News
(thanks Frans) follows up on the story below this one announcing that Half-Life
2 authentication issues have been solved:
We have resolved the issues that
caused some to experience delays with Half-Life 2 authentication earlier today.
We appreciate your patience and hope everyone enjoys the game.
"Its funny that safeguards like the ones that Valve is trying to implement only end up hurting the legitimate consumers. The crooks will just wait a few weeks for when one of the cracking houses releases an offline version for the masses. "
More like wait a few hours, its already out on the net.