September 24th, 2008
Spore hit by class-action lawsuit over DRM
A class-action lawsuit has been filed against EA over the SecuROM DRM mechanism built into the Spore game.
The suit (PDF here), file by Melissa Thomas, is aimed squarely at EA’s decision to use SecuROM for anti-piracy purposes.
I’ve had a quick look through the suit and I don’t think that it stands a chance. Why? Well …
- Bogus claims, such as:
“Once installed, it [SecuROM] become 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.”
If you want to remove SecuROM, there’s an uninstaller available from the SecuROM website. - The suit relies far too much on comments from the Amazon.com web page for Spore. While there are plenty of claims that Spore wreaks havoc on PCs to choose from, it’s going to be hard to prove that any of this damage is down to Spore or the SecuROM DRM.
The words “spyware” and “virus” are used to describe SecuROM, despite no antivirus program recognizing it as such.
In the middle of the spurious claims are some valid ones. For example, EA doesn’t make it clear that Spore installs SecuROM onto PCs, and nowhere does EA give help and advice to people wanting to rid their system of DRM.
I can’t see this suit going far.
Thoughts?
Adrian is a technology journalist and author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology. He also runs a popular blog called The PC Doctor. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations
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