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EA Hit By Class-Action Suit Over Spore DRM
Posted by
Soulskill
on Wed Sep 24, 2008 04:02 PM
from the was-it-worth-the-hassle? dept.
from the was-it-worth-the-hassle? dept.
The ever-growing unrest caused by the DRM involved with EA's launch of Spore came to a head on Monday. A woman named Melissa Thomas filed a class-action lawsuit against EA for their inclusion of the SecuROM copy-protection software with Spore. This comes after protests of the game's DRM ranged from a bombardment of poor Amazon reviews to in-game designs decrying EA and its policies. Some of those policies were eased, but EA has also threatened to ban players for even discussing SecuROM on their forums. The court documents (PDF) allege:
"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 ... Consumers are given no control, rights, or options over SecuROM. ... Electronic Arts intentionally did not disclose to any such purchasers that the Spore game disk also possessed a second, hidden program which secretly installed to the command and control center of the computer."
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In September, we discussed a class-action suit filed against Electronic Arts over the DRM in Spore. Now, two new class-action suits have been filed that target the SecuROM software included in a free trial of the Spore Creature Creator (PDF) and in The Sims 2: Bon Voyage (PDF). If this sort of legal reprisal continues to catch on, EA could be seeing quite a few class-action suits in the future. One of the suits accuses:
"The inclusion of undisclosed, secretly installed DRM protection measures with a program that was freely distributed constitutes a major violation of computer owners' absolute right to control what does and what does not get loaded onto their computers, and how their computers shall be used ... [SecuROM] cannot be completely uninstalled. Once installed it becomes a permanent part of the consumer's software portfolio ... EA's EULA for Spore Creature Creator Free Trial Edition makes utterly no mention of any Technical Protection Measures, DRM technology, or SecuROM whatsoever."
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The "Ban" (Score:5, Informative)
Re:The "Ban" (Score:5, Informative)
"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."
The text is in red, and it looks like the post has been edited. It's a shame that Spore's forums won't let you see who made the edit, however. It would be nice if we could see, without a doubt, that it was edited by a moderator.
Parent
EA has lost me (Score:5, Insightful)
BS (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:BS (Score:5, Informative)
What a BS summary of the article. I generally don't RTFA but this time I did, and it revealed a seedy-as-I've-ever-seen summary. People aren't getting banned for talking about DRM. They are being banned for being jackasses when they talk about DRM.
Correct. It's way too sensationalist. The moderator (who was obviously just fed up but spoke out of line) was threatening to ban people for starting flame wars on the forums, but the official response:
"We are happy to support healthy exchanges on the forums. And people will only get banned for breaking the rules. Discussing DRM is not breaking the rules - and as long as it is a civil conversation, it's cool with us," said "Maxislucky".
Much less dramatic, no? I know DRM is nasty, but any sort of credibility of news reporting is lost when this happens. Maybe I'm becoming more aware of it, or maybe it's happening more and more. It's hard to say...
Parent
Wrong word (Score:5, Interesting)
Several times in the PDF, the word "uninstallable" is used. However, it is used incorrectly. If the program actually were "uninstallable", then one of two things would be the case: (1) you would be able to uninstall it, or (2) you would not be able to install it.
Neither of these is the case. I believe the word the author was looking for was "ununinstallable", meaning that it could not be uninstalled.
Let's hope the lawsuit is undismissable because of this typo.
davidh
Re:Undisclosed? (Score:5, Insightful)
And the EULA is printed on the outside of the box?
Parent
Re:Undisclosed? (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
Re:Undisclosed? (Score:5, Insightful)
No, but the EULA is displayed when you want to install the game
Ohhhh, you mean the click-through "contract" that is only available for viewing AFTER the game is purchased and rendered non-returnable. Gotya.
So, care to explain to me what I should do the next time I do not agree to an EULA? I prefer a solution that won't get me laughed out of a store or off the phone, if you could.
Parent
Re:Undisclosed? (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Undisclosed? (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Undisclosed? (Score:5, Informative)
Granted, I think it's sad that users of a game need to go over a EULA to feel good about their purchase but I guess that is the nature of the beast today.
Parent
Re:simply boycott them (Score:5, Insightful)
Boycotting is fine if you can manage the sacrifice yourself. But if you still want the game, but you would just rather not see malware attached in future editions, a suit works out better -- hits them, potentially, in the wallet due to the settlement and negative image portrayal.
Parent
Re:simply boycott them (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
Re:simply boycott them (Score:5, Interesting)
If there are alternatives and those alternatives do well (without the DRM) then I'm sure the message will come across loud and clear.
And if it doesn't then the market will take care of them eventually. We're really only in the beginnings of this phase of the copyright game and it will take a while for it to play out but I'm pretty confident that eventually all media will be DRM free and will use open standards. It's the vested interests that have the most to lose here, new talent really couldn't care less, they'll take the audience and run with it.
Parent
Re:simply boycott them (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
Re:simply boycott them (Score:5, Informative)
It worked in the eighties. The major game writing software houses had DRM, the indies didn't. The indies were ironically the guys like Carmak and Broussard who were putting out shareware and are now running the big game companies.
"Don't trust anyone over 25" - Cory Doctorow ;)
Parent
Re:simply boycott them (Score:5, Funny)
"Don't trust anyone under 25" - Everybody over 25 ;)
Parent
Re:simply boycott them (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
Re:simply boycott them (Score:5, Insightful)
Describing them explicitly as "rentals" might dissipate some ire on the limited-installs thing, but it would in no way excuse the practice of PERMANENTLY installing malware on the user's machine, which is what this suit is about.
Parent
Re:simply boycott them (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:simply boycott them (Score:5, Insightful)
Problem is, every copy of a game they don't sell, they seem to blame on piracy, not their own worthless products.
Parent
Re:simply boycott them (Score:5, Insightful)
The big problem is that boycotting doesn't really work, not only is there the problem that the publisher will conclude that piracy was the fault, not DRM, but there is also the problem that the publshier is often the one dictating the DRM not the developer, in fact the developers are often against it, but they can't really do much about it. And when boycotting the publisher means to also boycott the developers that I actually care about, then boycotting is often a not an option.
Parent
Re:simply boycott them (Score:5, Interesting)
Check out StarDock's Gamers' Bill of Rights. http://www.stardock.com/about/newsitem.asp?id=1095 [stardock.com]
Sins of a Solar Empire is an excellent RTS game, with frequent major updates.
Parent
Re:Command and Control Center? (Score:5, Funny)
That would be the Battle Bridge, just go up Turbolift-14, all the way to the top. Can't miss it.
Parent