EA Hit By Class-Action Suit Over Spore DRM 538
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."
Re:Undisclosed? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:simply boycott them (Score:5, Interesting)
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:simply boycott them (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:EA has lost me (Score:2, Interesting)
I was considering getting it when I saw it on sale for $9.99 at Best Buy, until I remembered the fuss kicked up over it here. That, plus the fact that seeing a relatively new game go for $9.99 raises a few alarms in and of itself.
Just crack the damn software (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
As we have seen before, boycotts don't work. (Score:4, Interesting)
Boycotts don't work in this industry. They never have. The closest things to a successful boycott was the Mortal Kombat issue between the Sega Genesis and Super NES. Which was easily corrected by the time Mortal Kombat 2 rolled around.
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.
Re:simply boycott them (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Why complain when you can crack the game (Score:3, Interesting)
This doesn't work! (Score:5, Interesting)
I purchased Spore ( The Galactic edition ) from Amazon on September 8th, for overnight delivery.
I could not get it installed. After 11 days of going back and forth with EA tech support, EA informed me that they assigned the software key to someone else on September 7th. EA's solution, "return the software to my place of purchase".
Sounds great, but companies such as EA have told vendors not to take returns on software that is no longer in the shrinkwrap.
I have pointed out to EA that the only viable solution is for them to issue me a new key.
I have heard nothing from EA on this since Saturday.
Maybe it is time to fire up the lawyers. EA took my money, and has not given me a product in exchange.
Re:simply boycott them (Score:3, Interesting)
It's been pointed out MANY times that Stardock games do have DRM. I point you to the sig.bin file (which causes a validation check if removed) in your install folder and this image:
http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/8435/stardockactivationeo1.png [imageshack.us]
Re:Undisclosed? (Score:3, Interesting)
Thanks for that. But for what's worth, the word "SecuROM" or "secure" are not mentioned there.
It mentions
Third Party Technology. The Software incorporates technology
developed by TransGaming Inc. (the "Cider Technology"). The terms
and conditions and licenses set out in the schedule apply to Cider
Technology.
but TransGaming Inc. did not develop SecuROM. So, EA, I think, has still their pants down.
SecuROM messes up your computer (Score:3, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Good. Make it expensive for them. (Score:3, Interesting)
A class action is not the way to go - everyone filing against EA individually in small claims would SEVERELY damage them, as most small claims courts don't allow lawyers, which levels the playing field, and it also puts them at a severe manpower disadvantage - since most lawyers are disallowed the company's going to have a hard time representing itself in many of those court cases, which will end up default judgements and the plaintiffs will win simply because there's not enough manpower to handle every case in every state.
Re:simply boycott them (Score:5, Interesting)
When you're tired of one game you can't sell it or give it away without doing the same with ALL of your Steam games, or using a separate account for each game.
Whenever possible I avoid purchasing games through Steam if they are available otherwise.
Re:simply boycott them (Score:5, Interesting)
Keeping in mind that in my, what, 16 years of playing games on a PC I've yet to actually sell a game, that doesn't really concern me much.
Re:This doesn't work! (Score:3, Interesting)
Buy with credit.
When someone rips you off, file a dispute. This is the right answer. It will hit them where it hurts.