Lawsuits and Ban Threats Over Spore DRM

[Shawn Zipay]

The DRM for Spore has a number of gamers up in arms. A string of interesting events have popped up in the past couple of days because of it. Events that involve threats from moderators on the official EA forums and a new lawsuit over the DRM.

First, a thread attempting to discuss DRM on the official EA forums was closed and a rather interesting warning was issued by the moderation staff.

SecuROM as been discussed and discussed so much and it causes arguments in threads. If you want to talk about DRM SecuROM then please use another fansite forum. If there is any change you will be able to read it on the official Spore site.

Please do not continue to post theses thread or you account may be at risk of banning which in some cases would mean you would need to buy a new copy to play Spore.

Yes, gamers were issued a warning that they might have to buy a new copy of the game should they be banned from the forums for continued DRM discussions. Ouch.

Thankfully, a ban on their forums would not result in anybody having to re-purchase a game they already purchased. This matter was quickly cleared up by another forum moderator.

"You are not going to lose your game for posting a comment. You are allowed to discuss the DRM and any concerns as long as it's done without making it personal to anyone."

With that little matter at least partially cleared up, news trickled out today that a class action lawsuit is being filed against Electronic Arts over the DRM issue. The lawsuit claims that the DRM in spore hijacks the user's computer.

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.

As outlandish as these claims sound, the lawsuit is proceeding forward. The plaintiffs are represented by Alan Himmelfarb from the KamberEdelson law firm. KamberEdelson specializes in "consumer protection for the digital age".

Spore Forum Nonsense
Lawsuit Source (Copy of the actual lawsuit)

[Flt. Sgt. Powderhound]

Re: Lawsuits and Ban Threats Over Spore DRM

I always love the way that people launch lawsuits for the dumbest of reasons in the USA. At least the UK has opinionated judges who basically tell claimants to *BEEP* off at preliminary hearings.

[KillerStickMan]

Re: Lawsuits and Ban Threats Over Spore DRM

I personally don't think this is a "dumb" reason to start a lawsuit over, and I'm very happy that someone is finally standing up for gamers against strong publishers like EA.

[Shawn Zipay]

Re: Lawsuits and Ban Threats Over Spore DRM

I think that the fact they're completely overblowing the issues with SecuROM is absurd. Standing up for the "rights" of gamers is one thing, but to make complete fabrications is another.

[Iwantcable]

Re: Lawsuits and Ban Threats Over Spore DRM

Man, I just still don't understand why they go through all the trouble with this DRM crap. They make all the people that buy the game angry - for what?

http://torrentfreak.com/spore-most-pirated-game-ever-thanks-to-drm-080913/

Nothing. It does absolutely nothing.

[consumerlaw]

Re: Lawsuits and Ban Threats Over Spore DRM

The lawsuit claims that the DRM in spore hijacks the user's computer.

[indent]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.

This paragraph is not an accurate quote from the complaint. If the complaint did say this, I would agree that the claim is outlandish, but I can assure you that the quoted section appears nowhere in the actual filed complaint.

The second and third paragraphs quoted by the OP are 'mostly' accurate. The original post provides a link to the complaint, which is the best source of information for anybody who wishes to evaluate the merits of the case.

By the way, this is a Global class action – even purchasers in the UK are included in this one.


Alan Himmelfarb

[KillerStickMan]

Re: Lawsuits and Ban Threats Over Spore DRM

Yea, I just read the first 10 pages of the lawsuit and I didn't see anything about it "completely wiping your hard drive" and replacing it with SecuROM.

[FPS[SONIC]]

Re: Lawsuits and Ban Threats Over Spore DRM

That is a bogus quote, I just read a synopsis in the paper and it was very different than the original post here.

I agree with the lawsuit and I'm fervently anti-DRM. I make digital assets I resell for a living. There are other ways to secure your product which are more effective.

SecureROM is envasive and persistent. It can only be removed through very aggressive means.

EA and Spore FTL.

[Shawn Zipay]

Re: Lawsuits and Ban Threats Over Spore DRM

Yea, I just read the first 10 pages of the lawsuit and I didn't see anything about it "completely wiping your hard drive" and replacing it with SecuROM.

Page 3 IIRC, but it was taken out of context. Somebody should probably go take it up with courthousenews.com.

[Kittani]

Re: Lawsuits and Ban Threats Over Spore DRM

I wonder if this is why my computer has had serious performance issues after installing Spore. I should file a lawsuit stating that it's malware. Since it's not mentioned on the packaging or the EULA they had no right to install anything other than thier game on my computer. By installing a secondary program in secret that has caused damage to my data, they have violated most anti-hacking laws related to trojan malware and hacking. Those are federal crimes... hope they like the view from behind bars.

[MrKLM]

Re: Lawsuits and Ban Threats Over Spore DRM

I wonder if this is why my computer has had serious performance issues after installing Spore. I should file a lawsuit stating that it's malware. Since it's not mentioned on the packaging or the EULA they had no right to install anything other than thier game on my computer. By installing a secondary program in secret that has caused damage to my data, they have violated most anti-hacking laws related to trojan malware and hacking. Those are federal crimes... hope they like the view from behind bars.

This is a rather ignorant statement. DRM causes no negative performance issues nor does it have any effect on your systems performance, try doing some sensible research before you go off on a rant like this.

[Wizrdwarts]

Re: Lawsuits and Ban Threats Over Spore DRM

Like most anti-piracy moves, this hurts the honest consumer more than the pirate. Like unskippable FBI warnings on DVDs. If you pirate Spore you don't have to worry about all this, but if you go and buy it even resetting your CMOS will use up an installation.

[[Expletive Deleted]]

Re: Lawsuits and Ban Threats Over Spore DRM

This is a rather ignorant statement. DRM causes no negative performance issues nor does it have any effect on your systems performance, try doing some sensible research before you go off on a rant like this.

That's not entirely accurate. I'm not sure about Spore's DRM as I refuse to play it, but there have been a lot of games in the not-too-distant past that had horrible performance issues due to DRM.
I'm not going to make a comprehensive list here, but:
StarForce... 'nuff said
Morrowind: was so bad the SafeDisc protection was removed in a legitimate patch later on.
And you can find a lot of other games where a ***** crack improves performance. This was especially true of games that had the audio assets on the disc and had CD checks as well.

Here is the thing: even if there aren't performance issues caused by this invasive DRM, are there any gains? Ever?

[Cmac[XI]]

Re: Lawsuits and Ban Threats Over Spore DRM

Sorry there are alot of problems with EA and Spore the DRM being one of the most obvious problems and I have to say that the DRM does actually take up resources on your computer as the CPU loses some processing power as securom is constantly running from when you boot the computer to when you turn it off. Despite not being a major loss it is still a loss of processing power.

Another problem with Spore is that EA claims ownership of anything you create in the game you do not hold the rights to ANYTHING for spore. You buy the license to run the game and to create characters which EA will own.

Also from what I have read of the EULA so far (not finished it yet) there is no mention of Securom being installed on the computer at all which Makes it Illegal!

[iQue]

Re: Lawsuits and Ban Threats Over Spore DRM

Sorry there are alot of problems with EA and Spore the DRM being one of the most obvious problems and I have to say that the DRM does actually take up resources on your computer as the CPU loses some processing power as securom is constantly running from when you boot the computer to when you turn it off. Despite not being a major loss it is still a loss of processing power.

I'm not sure about Spore but that is not true for other securom "protected" games. I purchased Crysis Warhead as an example, I've read a lot of threads about this on the official crysis forums and pretty much all securom does is to install a few registry entries and securom only runs while running the game itself, and even then only during the start.

Again, don't know how the deal is with Spore but securom in Crysis Warhead isn't all that bad and it most certainly won't break your computer, then it's something else interfering. The 5 install limit is annoying but most people get their activations back without a problem, through a simple phone call or support ticket.

Starforce was pretty bad but there was nothing wrong with the later versions of it, yet the rumour was enough to keep players from buying the games that had it.