Spore DRM Lawsuit

The Courthouse News Service has news of a class action lawsuit filed in US federal court against Electronic Arts over the digital rights management in Spore, the recently released life simulator (though their reporting of the details of the case is inaccurate). The suit is over the stealthy install of the SecuROM software, rather than the aspects of the DRM that have already been the source of controversy like activation limitations (story). Here's a bit from the court filing: "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, which is a form of Digital Rights Management (DRM) for computer game. Although consumers are told the game uses access control and copy protection technology, consumers are not told this technology is actually an entirely separate, stand-alone program which will download, install, and operate on their computers, along with the Spore download. Consumers are given no control, rights, or options over SecuROM. The program is uninstallable. 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, SecuROM remains a fixture in their computer unless and until the consumer completely wipes their hard drive through reformatting or replacement of the drive." Thanks BingeGamer/N4G.