can steam recognize pirated games and stop them from running?

Question

i can't play torrented valve games, while some of my friends can, easily... when i click on the icon, nothing happens... i'm talking about a number of games (like L4D, L4D2, portal) it's always the same problem... is that because i have steam installed? can i fix this somehow? if that's not the problem, then what is it? i don't have much money, so bear with me... tnx, upfront :)

Answer 1

Steam can run them, but the thing that's stopping you is anti-piracy, steam has one and if you run a pirated game steam thinks it is not fully legalised, and since steam offers over 50 thousand games, they want the makers to get full credit for it. Hence why you cant run the pirated games via steam.

So if you wan't to run any pirated game which needs steam, launch the game then steam, otherwise anti-piracy will detect it.