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."

Comments

I predict the class will win the following award:

[Anonymous Coward]

The victorious class will be awarded a voucher for a free credit report from the good folks at freecreditreport.com.

Shamless Self-Promotion

[ewhac]

Anyone want to bid on my InTrade market?

Schwab

Re:simply boycott them

[nschubach]

This is WAY off Topic, so just ignore me:

As a lingering Metallica fan who enjoyed some of the music post black album, their new songs are like A.D.D. Rock. They don't flow right often switching beat mid song, they are mixed all wrong (drums too loud, vocals as well) ... I can't stand to listen to it anymore. I've ventured into Progressive Metal|Rock in order to get my fix of heavy rifts, deep vocals and sound.

Re:simply boycott them

[Walkingshark]

What is this progressive metal/rock you speak of? I am intrigued.

Re:simply boycott them

[Stormwatch]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_rock

Re:simply boycott them

[cibyr]

Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin fit into the category, but some less well-known examples are:

• Dream Theater
• Porcupine Tree
• Pain of Salvation
• King Crimson
• Rush

That should be enough to get you started :)

Why are you hiding?

[QZTR]

You were wrong, Apple lets you return opened software, and I distinctly recall you saying

"Wow, that's fucking bullshit. There's NOWHERE you can purchase a PC GAME from and RETURN it. Where are you from, the 1990s?

No stop being a moronic asshole just to "win" your pointless argument."

I notice that vociferousness is conspicuously absent in your "mea culpa".

Now that I think about it, your entire "mea culpa" is absent, and you're STILL lying about not being able to retun software after it is opened.

http://store.apple.com/Catalog/US/Images/salespolicies.html

Note that you may return software after rejecting the licensing terms, provided the software is not installed on a computer. However, if your software includes a license that you can read before you break the seal or sticker on the software media packaging, you may not return the software once you break the software media packaging seal or sticker

What kind of coward does that?

Oh, you do...

Re:simply boycott them

[tompaulco]

Also:
Emerson, Lake and Palmer
Yes
Richard Wakeman
I'd dare say even Alan Parsons Project.