NDAs are the way companies DEMAND a reporter not to report on a thing. Again, Valve is not trying to turn this into a legal mess. There were no repercussions to

NDAs are the way companies DEMAND a reporter not to report on a thing. Again, Valve is not trying to turn this into a legal mess. There were no repercussions to the Verge other than losing access to the beta. I don't think that companies being rigid soulless entities is a good thing. If this is the kind of thing that makes Valve go "I guess we need to invite fewer people and make everyone sign an NDA" then the world is robbed of just a bit of fun. And that makes the Verge's actions a jerk move at an even deeper level. The actual prompt that shows up when you launch the game says: > Early Development Build > Deadlock is still early in development, with a lot of temporary art and experimental gameplay. Do not share anything about the game with anyone. > [ OK ] They make it pretty clear what they want in exchange for playing the game. > Expecting people to adhere to your version of what the right thing is. You think that asking people to do something as a human, instead of sterilizing the interaction and bringing lawyers into it... that's the jerk move. There isn't much wiggle room on what is right here. If the Verge didn't want to adhere to the agreement, they could have just closed the game. So they agreed to not share the information, and then did anyway. That's dishonest, and a jerk move. They weren't being dishonest to expose a larger crime (this wasn't whistleblowing), they were just dishonest for their own benefit. I would hope you're not the type of person who shares other people's secrets, because you're not legally obligated to since you never signed an NDA.