EA sued over Spore DRM

By Tor Thorsen, GameSpotPosted Sep 24, 2008 11:16 am PT

Class action filed in US District Court contends that publisher hides fact game installs irremovable SecuROM, violating two California laws.

Ever since Spore was released on September 7, an uproar has been growing. Many gamers have taken great exception to the fact the PC game comes bundled with SecuROM digital rights management software. One criticism is that SecuROM only allows the game to be installed on three computers before locking. As a result of the outcry, EA expanded the number of Spore installs to five PCs last week.

Still, a more persistent complaint is that, once installed, SecuROM cannot be removed. Accusations have also been leveled that the program amounts to malware or spyware, since it monitors computer use to prevent duplication.

Spore's use of SecuROM has sparked a major backlash, with pirates using the DRM as justification to download illegal copies of the title. A recent Forbes article pointed out that the game was widely pirated in the days after its release, with the blog TorrentFreak claiming 500,000 illegal downloads of the game were made in just one week.

Now, two weeks after the illegal response to Spore began, EA faces a new, legal challenge to its DRM policy. This week, a class action suit was filed in the North District of California Court by the law firm KamberEdelson on behalf of one Melissa Thomas and all other Spore purchasers. According to the filing, which was made available by Courthousenews.com, the suit contends that EA violated the California Consumer Legal Remedies Act and Unfair Competition Law by not informing consumers installing Spore will also install SecuROM.

"Although consumers are told the game uses access control and copy protection technology, consumers are not told that this technology is actually an entirely separate, stand-alone program which will download, install, and operate on their computer," read the complaint. "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 on their computer unless and until the consumer completely wipes their hard drive through reformatting or replacement of the drive."

The suit accuses EA of "intentionally" hiding the fact Spore uses SecuROM, which it alleges is "secretly installed to the command and control center of the computer (Ring 0, or the Kernel) and [is] surreptitiously operated, overseeing function and operation of the computer, and preventing the computer from operating under certain circumstances and/or disrupting hardware operations." The suit also claims the SecuROM takes over a portion of the PC's processing resources "to transmit information back to EA."

The filing asks the judge to certify the action as a class action, and award anyone in it damages equal to the purchase price of Spore and "actual damages, statutory damages, or treble damages." Given Spore's success, paying back thrice its $49.99 price tag could prove costly for EA, which had not responded to requests for comment as of press time.

623 Comments

  • steelydoctorwu

    Posted Dec 30, 2008 8:46 pm PT

    I understand the Piracy thing but I am not a Pirate and I do not and have never had in my Home any illegal software. The issues I have with Securom at this point have led me to vow I will never purchase another product which uses their services. This means I am going to be playing some old Games for a very long time but so be it, all good things must come to an end and it is not worth the hassle.

  • demoman_chaos

    Posted Dec 13, 2008 12:33 pm PT

    If you have the hard drive space, just copy the files from the Spore CD to your PC and install from there. SecuROM is trumped and victory is yours.

  • CivicGSR

    Posted Dec 9, 2008 11:54 am PT

    I'm so mad at EA about SecuROM; unless I plan to play a lot of multiplayer, I'm never paying for an EA game again. And Spore sucks anyways, I can't believe I got suckered into the hype and wasted 50 hard earned dollars... It was good to hear that Spore set a record for pirated copies... keep it up fellow gamers, lets fight these douches!

  • hurricaner posted Oct 15, 2008 2:25 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    hurricaner

    Posted Oct 15, 2008 2:25 pm PT (hide)

    would you like to live in a world where whenever ea releases a new game they file 100's of lawsuits against ea!

  • dreadedlyfe

    Posted Oct 13, 2008 11:26 pm PT

    If I had known that this crap was included I would never have paid my hard earned money($80, galaxy edition) on my computer. The only things that should be installed are the game. That's it. If it doesn't ask you, it is really no better than a hacker infecting you. The hackers, if caught, are supposed to be criminally penalized. That isn't even taking into account the civil penalties that they incur. If regular people go to jail for it and have to pay for it why should EA, or any other company, get away with it? I myself think that it is a total load of crap. Just another shining example of who really runs this country.

  • P-Ublius

    Posted Oct 13, 2008 11:37 am PT

    It's like herpes or something.

  • infernal_frog

    Posted Oct 13, 2008 2:14 am PT

    Good news: The Spore and Mass Effect lawsuits (yes, two have been filed) includes INTERNATIONAL customers So if you've purchased Spore or Mass Effect, just get in touch with the lawyers to provide information and whatnot. You can contact them via email or phone.

    The lawyers' contact info is on the front page of this site:
    http://reclaimyourgame.com

    This site ALSO has info on how to remove SecuROM, what it is, as well as updates on any SecuROM/EA related news.

    Good luck with the lawsuits, EA needs to own up to this. The only thing EA has done is caused paying customers to suffer, while the pirates play secuROM-free.

  • shaheermian

    Posted Oct 11, 2008 10:13 am PT

    "I wasn't aware of SecureROM until now... I almost bought SimCity 4 the other day too, I'm glad I didn't! I definitely won't be buying any PC EA Games again regardless of what they do next."

    True.... or at least i'll do a deep research before buying one!

  • FriendBear

    Posted Oct 10, 2008 11:36 am PT

    Another typical 'piracy' hurts our business whine, when will developers get a clue that piracy has never hurt the industry, developers and publishers releasing substandard, even critically bugged products to stores is the problem not to mention charging exuberant prices for them. If developers actually started to release 'complete' games again and lowered the prices it might actually restore some confidence in the gaming markets and many people might actually buy games instead of downloading them, of course, filling them up with hidden malware such as SecuRom and Starforce doesn't help either.

  • no_cultureicons

    Posted Oct 9, 2008 5:21 pm PT

    "Do you see any of the publishers suing all the gamers that got the game illegally?"

    No, but that's only because they couldn't possibly trace all those people.

    I wasn't aware of SecureROM until now... I almost bought SimCity 4 the other day too, I'm glad I didn't! I definitely won't be buying any PC EA Games again regardless of what they do next.

  • MrEddie

    Posted Oct 9, 2008 5:21 am PT

    Stop putting money in protecting games(read sales). Try putting it back in the development of games, games that sell are good, games that are downloaded are bad or there are to much complications ( bugs, bad minimal req., only high end system.) its simple math!!!

  • eric_neo3

    Posted Oct 8, 2008 7:58 pm PT

    SecuROM is the michael jackson of video games.

    The only ones who were really affected by this was people who bought the game sadly EA has somehow come to the conclusion that the paying customer is a criminal.

    Nappan I so agree with you:
    "Spore was pitifully easy to crack and distribute, and yet the truly honest people are the ones getting a poke in the eye with this SecuROM bull. In a very real way, this is a warning to either pirate or abstain from buying Spore, and also shows how desperate companies are to keep an artificially inflated market alive through illegal actions of their own. There is no moral highground here, only victims and victimizers."

  • exponential7216

    Posted Oct 7, 2008 4:05 pm PT

    Securom DRM is to Spore/Mass Effect/Bioshock is like what STDs are to that one night stand during shore leave. Sure you have your fun, with great eye candy to boot, but you are stuck with the consequences which are darn tough to get rid off...

  • nappan

    Posted Oct 6, 2008 11:37 am PT

    This is tragic and amusing. Spore was pitifully easy to crack and distribute, and yet the truly honest people are the ones getting a poke in the eye with this SecuROM bull. In a very real way, this is a warning to either pirate or abstain from buying Spore, and also shows how desperate companies are to keep an artificially inflated market alive through illegal actions of their own. There is no moral highground here, only victims and victimizers.

  • aposgr

    Posted Oct 6, 2008 8:30 am PT

    Those idiots on Ea don't know the word "hacker".FYI Spore was cracked 9 hours after release.

    This link tells how to wipe securom of the face of Earth.Hope it helps

    http://reclaimyourgame.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=68&Itemid=40

  • Moloch121

    Posted Oct 5, 2008 3:12 pm PT

    rpgisforme your comparing children to DRM? and 4 kids use some protection!

    Though I hope EA loses because maybe this will stop them from using DRM its a hassle trying to install Mass Effect and Spore I had it since release didnt know it would stay even if i uninstalled

  • mightywarlord

    Posted Oct 4, 2008 6:45 pm PT

    *********

    goddamnit. Now I'm really pissed.

  • mightywarlord

    Posted Oct 4, 2008 6:45 pm PT

    *********

    goddamnit. Now I'm really pissed.

  • rpgisforme

    Posted Oct 2, 2008 4:13 am PT

    I've wanted spore and I'm thankful I didn't get it release day. I'll keep my money and they can keep their spyware! I pay for my games and I make legal copies of my own DVD's. I have 4 kids, I don't feel like replacing them all the time cause they've been scratched and I really don't like the sound of " preventing the computer from running under certain circumstances" like when I'm trying to make a legal copy of a disk I bought so I can keep the master safe from harm and protect my investment? No thanks EA!! Will Wright, I love your games, ya need to make them for a different company. A fair one.

  • fairlypriced

    Posted Oct 1, 2008 12:51 am PT

    Why bother with DRM/SecuROM - it doesn't stop pirates and angers genuine purchasers of the game.

    I played Spore for a week but the SecuRom is on for life!
    Looks like I'll be doing a format soon and if I get the urge to play Spore again it will have to be a pirate version!

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