EA being sued over DRM

[Delirious]

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 SecurROM.

"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, SecurROM 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 SecurROM, 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 SecurROM 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.

I love Will Wright's work in Sim City and The Sims...Spore now being his greatest work lately...EA and its DRM just seems to take that joy away for a ton...

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6198136.html?sid=6198136&part=rss&subj=6198136 Original Article

http://www.courthousenews.com/2008/09/23/Spore.pdf Case document

I havn't bought Spore yet so...*shrug* dunno what to think...anyone else though?

Oh, here's how to get rid of the DRM after uninstall.

If you want to completely remove SecuROM after uninstalling this game, including the 'SecuROM User Access' Service it installs in Windows, follow these steps:

1. Uninstall the game as normal.
2. Manually delete the game directory (typically \Program Files\Atari\Crashday-demo\
3. Go to Start>Run and type "Services.msc" (without quotes) and press Enter.
4. Go to the 'Securom User Access' Service, double click on it, click Stop and then set it to Disabled.
5. Go to \Windows\System32\ directory and delete the UAService7.exe file.
6. Go to Start>Run and type "sc delete useraccess7" (without quotes) and press Enter.

Note: This Service may be recreated by one of your other SecuROM games, in which case you will have to keep it running to play them.

The following steps are very risky and only for people who are certain none of their currently installed games use or need SecuROM:

7. Go to \Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\ and delete the SecuROM sub-directory.
8. Go to Start>Run and type "Regedit" (without quotes) and press Enter. Then find the [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\SecuROM] key and delete it if possible.

Although I am reading now that it just disables SecuROM...not removes it. I'm sure a friendly google search can find a way to remove it completely.

 

[nick09]

Well I'd hate it if over the years I install it on a new desktop and a error message says "Sorry you can't pirate this game" then I will be very, very, and much more mad that I can't install it more than five times.

I remember the times when we had warcraft 3 and the sims 2; that you did not need to worry about a DRM limit.

 

[niky]

While the way Valve did it with Half-Life 2 was a pain in the arse (you had to log-on every time you wanted the game to run)... it was, at least, an acceptable precaution... at least the license restriction limited you to one user... not just one PC... this... however, is plain ludicrous.

I hate it when software developers penalize you for switching platforms or crashing hard-disks...

 

[nk4e]

Well, doesn't Steam have a system. Where it lets its user to play a certain game on multiple computers?

 

[Tornado]

I read something where Spore was/is the most pirated game ever mostly as a way to circumvent the DRM.

 

[Delirious]

From the article

"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."

I just don't want to go through the SecuROM being made apart of my computer...then again, the pirates probably use that excuse too.

 

[V1P3R]

If it was any other company than EA I'd feel a little more sympathetic about them wanting to protect their product, but it's not like EA will fold if ONE game gets pirated...

 

[niky]

Well, doesn't Steam have a system. Where it lets its user to play a certain game on multiple computers?

Yup. Even though it's a PITA to have to log-on to the internet to actually play the game, especially since our local ISPs go down a lot and the Steam server occassionally glitches, at least the verification system allows you to install HL2 on every PC you own (or don't) and you can play from wherever you are... you're still limited to one user license, but not limited to one physical installation... infinitely superior, IMHO.... I loved getting online and shooting the hell out of people on the Singaporean servers (BTW, free...) back when I still had a desktop capable of playing CS:Source.

 

[Prosthetic]

Yup. Even though it's a PITA to have to log-on to the internet to actually play the game, especially since our local ISPs go down a lot and the Steam server occassionally glitches, at least the verification system allows you to install HL2 on every PC you own (or don't) and you can play from wherever you are... you're still limited to one user license, but not limited to one physical installation... infinitely superior, IMHO.... I loved getting online and shooting the hell out of people on the Singaporean servers (BTW, free...) back when I still had a desktop capable of playing CS:Source.

You actually don't have to be online to play the non multi-player games. You can login in offline mode but you still have to log in. I like the way Valve did it with Steam. EA is a snoopy company, and like to get into peoples lives and sue kids for maximum profit. The quality of there games have defiantly gone down compared to the old NFS and C&C days. I don't think the games are worth what they are sold for.

 

[Robin]

I kind of take a different view point, If I have paid for the software I have the ability to do whatever I wish to do with it... if I have a hundred computers of my own I don't see why I cannot fully use what I paid for..

There should be no copy protection, if lets say I do something illegal like pass it on then its EA's job to chase it up / find means to check that ive done so after the fact.

Basically innocent until proven guilty rather than everyone assumed guilty through SecuRom.

I can see totally why they are being sued, its a breach of freedom and invasion of privacy. This is also another reason I prefer console because that plan to tie games to consoles failed ages ago.

Robin

 

[wfooshee]

Yeah, except you didn't buy the software. You bought a license to use it one time. If you were free to install it on every machine you own, then running it on a second one (simultaneously) would violate your license. So you don't run it but once anywhere? Fine. They don't have to accept your assertion that you're behaving yourself with their property.

There's no assumption of guilt with copy protection or rights management, there's a protection of intellectual property and the value it represents to the developer and publisher.

The issue with this EA thing right now is that they put something on the users' PC without notifying them, and did not provide a removal process. That they have no right to do.

 

[Robin]

Yeah, except you didn't buy the software. You bought a license to use it one time. If you were free to install it on every machine you own, then running it on a second one (simultaneously) would violate your license. So you don't run it but once anywhere? Fine. They don't have to accept your assertion that you're behaving yourself with their property.

There's no assumption of guilt with copy protection or rights management, there's a protection of intellectual property and the value it represents to the developer and publisher.

The issue with this EA thing right now is that they put something on the users' PC without notifying them, and did not provide a removal process. That they have no right to do.

So in essence I am renting the game from them then. I really object to that because your paying full blown price for a one time shot as it were which is not a freedom of personal use.

Although, as you have said, EA states that your personal use in this case is dictated by them it doesnt mean its right of them to do this, we are not children! I suppose its not all that uncommon because DRM is everywhere but it doesnt make it any more offensive / insulting to peoples freedom. I thought things were going the way of total freedom now to curb piracy... EA seem to have not followed companies like Apple's DRM free songs lead.

If they notified users about the limitations and what securom does I doubt it would have sold as well as is it (especially amoung the more computer knowledgeable). Again EA played it down because feeling like you have no total control over something you have just bought aint exactly a great selling tag line.

Robin

 

[nk4e]

The issue with this EA thing right now is that they put something on the users' PC without notifying them, and did not provide a removal process. That they have no right to do.

Just like Norton Anti Virus though there is a specific removal tool. But if you don't know that, you would have to mess with the registry to get it out of your system entirely.

 

[Casio]

If they notified users about the limitations and what securom does I doubt it would have sold as well as is it (especially amoung the more computer knowledgeable). Again EA played it down because feeling like you have no total control over something you have just bought aint exactly a great selling tag line.

Microsoft have only allowed Windows and Office to be installed on 1-PC only for years now and people still buy it by the truckload.

 

[niky]

It's a monopoly. Or it was a near-monopoly, at one point... You don't really have much of a choice.

You have a certain number of installs for Windows, actually... and you can re-install it if your system crashes. But I don't buy windows (using it on the work PC only, have Xandros on my laptop), so I don't really care.

One a company sells you a physical item, they cannot dictate how you use it, no matter what kind of legal gobbledy-gook they use. They can however, legally prosecute you for reselling or redistributing it, which is what all these arcane copy-protection and usage-limiting strategies are geared at.

 

[Robin]

Microsoft have only allowed Windows and Office to be installed on 1-PC only for years now and people still buy it by the truckload.

Most people don't even know anything about PC's and probably buy them off the rack.. when they get a new pc they get a new oem copy of windows so they are blissfully unaware...

People also pirate windows by the truckload... its probably the most pirated piece of software on earth!

Robin

 

[wfooshee]

One a company sells you a physical item, they cannot dictate how you use it, no matter what kind of legal gobbledy-gook they use.

But they're not selling you a physical item, they're selling you a license to make use of their intellectual property. On their terms, which they can dictate, and which you accept by accepting the license. The protection of that license agreement, and thus the protection of their intellectual property, is where these rights management and copy protection systems are needed, and if not properly disclosed to the users, it's where the companies get in trouble, as Sony did a while back with some CDs.

In the business world where I operate, I can't begin to tell you how many companies I encounter that are astonished that they have to buy a license per user for servers, and for apps like MS Office. They want to buy a single $399 package and outfit the whole company! And before the MS-bashing starts, the same per user licensing applies to Corel, Adobe, Apple, whoever you want to name.

If you don't like the licensing, go with Linux and try to find stable apps that work. With any of your distributions. Even after updates and upgrades. That don't have to be upgraded and recompiled with every OS patch. Good luck with that.

If you want to do business reliably, you bite the bullet and do what it takes.

Licensing isn't that hard to understand, people. You don't own the game, you own a single-point use of the game. Period. The actual owner of the game has the right to protect their development investment. Sometimes they take it a step too far, as Sony did with some music, and now apparently EA has done.

 

[Casio]

That's exactly right, I work at a university where we have approximately 4000 PCs, we can't buy 1 copy of Office, 1 copy of Windows, 1 copy of Adobe CS3 and install it on 4000 PCs. It's no different for home use.

People also pirate windows by the truckload... its probably the most pirated piece of software on earth!

That annoys me alot. For the amount that people use Windows (Like 365 Days a year) the price of Windows isn't that bad. Then all the people who pirate it are the same people who complain about security issues and how crap Windows it.

 

[niky]

Oh... yeah... the cost for licensing for MSOffice and Windows for our school PCs is big, but at least when you have a lot of users, the price per install goes down a lot.

What I was saying is that as long as you abide by the agreement, and all installs or instances of usage are by the authorized buyer, they really can't stop you. They have to prove that you are giving the program out to other people. And they can't legally stop you from dissecting the program, but actively selling a program you made yourself with bits of stolen code, they can do something about, with hot irons and tongs.

Obviously, with a multi-PC home or user (not that uncommon, nowadays), checking that multiple installs only benefit one person becomes a hassle, hence these draconian measures... which is why I cited Steam... as with that system, you can install anything, anywhere, and non-licensed users cannot (theoretically) use it, but you, as the licensee, can use it any time or any place. USB-type security keys are another good one. If you've just bought a piece of software worth about $10,000 - $20,000 dollars (we have a few), you don't want to be stuck a cross-continent flight away from tech support if your server crashes... you just reinstall the program, and it accepts the security code on your physical key.

DRM is just a flawed idea. And patently illegal, as they shouldn't install software without your consent. But carrying a dozen physical USB keys might be a hassle, too... unless you can start a global system of passkeys, where, when you purchase software, your copy is coded to your particular key... hmmmm....

 

[Casio]

I think more companies should offer discounts for multiple copies of software for private use. It is kinda stupid how I have 3 PCs at home, and I have to buy 3 completely seperate copies of Office. However, I totally understand it, I mean what if I have 5 PCs at Home, or 50? They should make it easier to buy additional licence keys for personal use. Why should you have to pay for extra packaging/shipping/manuals/disks, for something you really only need a piece of paper with 20 numbers on it.

In regards to Spore only being installed on 5 computers, I think that's perfectly acceptable, not having played the game, but I assume that the game doesn't check for duplicate CD-Keys when playing online? (Can you play offline?).

 

[Joey D]

You don't really play Spore online, you can get creatures others create but you aren't actually competing against one another.

I see why they have limits but say I have my computer crash or I have to re-install Windows. I'm not using the game on another PC essentially but I might get nicked with the times used...especially since I like to uninstall games I don't play only to reinstall them a year down the road.

 

[Casio]

Yeah, I understand that point. However, it's really no different than Sony does with it's PSN games, that although you've paid for it you can only install it 5 times, so you just have to hope your PS3 doesn't crash 6 times, a pretty unlikely scenario.

I guess they could possibly restrict the game to installing on one Windows product key. That way as long as you're on the same computer, you can install it as many times as you like. (As long as you don't update your Windows...)

 

[Keef]

Microsoft have only allowed Windows and Office to be installed on 1-PC only for years now and people still buy it by the truckload.

The hell are you talking about? I've had this computer reformatted multiple times from the same disc.

 

[Casio]

You can't just give your product key to me though, or install it on your computer next to you at the same time though can you.