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EA Hit By Class-Action Suit Over Spore DRM

Posted by Soulskill on from the was-it-worth-the-hassle? dept.

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."

4 of 538 comments (clear)

  1. Re:simply boycott them by Fallen+Kell · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Boycotting doesn't work anymore. I have been boycotting most music for years, yet the music companies just point their finger and blame the drop in sales to pirates. Software companies will do the same thing.

    --
    We were all warned a long time ago that MS products sucked, remember the Magic 8 Ball said, "Outlook not so good"
  2. Wrong word by psiphiorg · · 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

  3. Re:simply boycott them by scatters · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Check out StarDock's Gamers' Bill of Rights. http://www.stardock.com/about/newsitem.asp?id=1095

    Sins of a Solar Empire is an excellent RTS game, with frequent major updates.

    --
    A One that isn't cold, is scarcely a One at all.
  4. This doesn't work! by micron · · 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.