BioWare's Dragon Age Forums outline plans for copy protection in Dragon Age: Origins, revealing the upcoming RPG will not use the reviled SecuROM system:

I have some good news to pass on to you today that answers one of the most frequently asked Dragon Age: Origins PC questions.

We’re happy to announce that the boxed/retail PC version of Dragon Age: Origins will use only a basic disk check and it will not require online authentication. In other words, the retail PC version of the game won’t require you to go online to authenticate the game for offline play. We have chosen not to use SecuROM in any version of Dragon Age that is distributed by EA or BioWare.

Some other cool stuff that we hope you’ll like - we have already launched the Dragon Age toolset beta, which offers developer-grade tools, and we’re looking forward to what fans will create with it. We’ll also be supporting the game with a ton of great downloadable content that will be available for purchase after the game’s release. Together these features will provide some very cool reasons to go online with Dragon Age: Origins.

We’re really excited as we head towards the release of Dragon Age: Origins this fall on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC, so keep an eye out for more news as we’ll be providing you with more details shortly.

Stay tuned for more coolness to come…