Half Life 2 Available (but not for Steam?!?!)

Seems Best Buy is selling Half Life 2 (boxed version) right now, but according to this article people who bought HL2 via Steam expecting to get the absolute first-jump on the game are screwed. Vivendi is claiming "it's not released yet". All Valve has to do is turn on their authentication servers and Steam users will be in business but Vivendi has claimed they will be in breach of contract if they do it. I hope everyone passes on their thoughts to Vivendi over this one. What a load of crap...