Spore DRM Lawsuit

The

Courthouse News Service has news of a class action lawsuit filed in US
federal court against Electronic Arts over the digital rights management in
Spore, the recently released life simulator (though their reporting of the
details of the case is inaccurate). The suit is over the stealthy install of the
SecuROM software, rather than the aspects of the DRM that have already been the
source of controversy like activation limitations (story). Here's
a bit from the
court filing: "What purchasers are not told is that, included in the
purchase, installation, and operation of Spore is a second, undisclosed program.
The name of the second program is SecuROM, which is a form of Digital Rights
Management (DRM) for computer game. Although consumers are told the game
uses access control and copy protection technology, consumers are not told this
technology is actually an entirely separate, stand-alone program which will
download, install, and operate on their computers, along with the Spore
download. Consumers are given no control, rights, or options over SecuROM. The
program is uninstallable. Once installed it becomes a permanent part of the
consumer's software portfolio. Even if the consumer uninstalls Spore, and
entirely deletes it from their computer, SecuROM remains a fixture in their
computer unless and until the consumer completely wipes their hard drive through
reformatting or replacement of the drive." Thanks
BingeGamer/N4G.


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