Class-Action Lawsuit Filed Against EA Due to DRM
While normally not within the scope of our coverage, this is one story whose implications are to important to pass up. Although in recent times, EA has lowered the restrictions in regards to the limitations presented by the SecuROM Digital Rights Management included with it’s release of Spore, there is little to no doubt that the damage has been done and consumers have been left with a bad taste in their mouths. After all, Spore’s DRM did absolutely nothing to stifle piracy of the game.
In response to the unwelcome SecuROM DRM contained within Spore, a class-action lawsuit has been filed within U.S. District Court.
Electronic Arts, a leading maker of computer games, defrauds consumers through its “Spore” game, which “completely wipes their hard drive” and replaces it with an undisclosed program that prevents the computer from operating under some circumstances and disrupts hardware operations, a class action claims in Federal Court.
The class claims that “Spore,” a virtual reality simulation game, contains “a second, undisclosed program” called SecuROM, a “form of Digital Rights Management (DRM) for computer games.”
Consumers are not warned about the program, which is installed without notice and cannot be uninstalled, even if the uninstall Spore, the complaint states. The secret SecuROM program is “secretly installed to the command and control center of the computer (Ring 0, or the Kernel), and surreptitiously operated, overseeing function and operation on the computer, preventing the computer from operating under certain circumstances and/or disrupting hardware operations,” the complaint states.
[ GamePolitics ] - This story is also available on The Super Soldiers
[...] there is little to no doubt that the damage has been done and consumers have been left with a bad taste in their mouths. After all, Spore’s DRM did absolutely nothing to stifle piracy of the game.
In response to the unwelcome SecuROM DRM contained within Spore, a class-action lawsuit has been filed within U.S. District Court. [...]
I really doubt this will go through; this is probably just the pirates complaining.
I personally have NO problems with any form of copy protection (StarForce was the one to beat down on a couple of years back; it was perfectly fine).
If EA actually loses, then this case is just the first of many. Doubtful, though.
Pirates are the complainers? Pirates are the only ones who don’t have to complain. They cracked this baby before it went retail. Now you have people who were legit players of EA games getting the cracked version so they don’t get securom on their computers.
People were having problems with the beefed up securom causing crashes and interfering with other programs on their computers. Securom doesn’t like itunes and nero.
EA couldn’t pay me to install another one of their games on my computer. I don’t pirate games so I’m complaining. I suppose if I did pirate I wouldn’t have any problems.
IcyStorm perhaps you should read the into the back story a bit. The SecuROM DRM did absolutely nothing to prevent piracy of the game. As a matter of fact, it was available a full day (if not before) prior to it’s actual retail date.
Additionally, the pirated version of the game does not feature DRM as it has been stripped. Meanwhile, consumers continue to experience problems with DRM; a video of one such consumer’s experiences was included in the post.
It is not the pirates complaining about the game, after all, why should they? They have copies of the game that work fine and don’t feature DRM. It’s the consumers who have the problems which is why the lawsuit was filed.
There’s a campaign to refuse to buy EA games until they remove DRM and SecuROM from their software.
It takes just a minute to sign up at http://www.thepoint.com/campaigns/ea-games-without-drm-and-secu-rom We’re trying to get at as many people as possible to sign up to get EA to notice. Figure each game costs $50, and if 500 people sign on, that would be $25,000 in lost revenue.
For its loyal customer base, secretly adding DRM and SecuROM in their install is just not the way to treat us. Thanks!