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Two New Class-Action Suits Against EA Over DRM
In September, we discussed a class-action suit filed against Electronic Arts over the DRM in Spore. Now, two new class-action suits have been filed that target the SecuROM software included in a free trial of the Spore Creature Creator (PDF) and in The Sims 2: Bon Voyage (PDF). If this sort of legal reprisal continues to catch on, EA could be seeing quite a few class-action suits in the future. One of the suits accuses:
"The inclusion of undisclosed, secretly installed DRM protection measures with a program that was freely distributed constitutes a major violation of computer owners' absolute right to control what does and what does not get loaded onto their computers, and how their computers shall be used ... [SecuROM] cannot be completely uninstalled. Once installed it becomes a permanent part of the consumer's software portfolio ... EA's EULA for Spore Creature Creator Free Trial Edition makes utterly no mention of any Technical Protection Measures, DRM technology, or SecuROM whatsoever."
IANAL
There is a principle in law that a clause in the contract can not invalidate a law. Also, you cannot waive a fundamental right that is granted by the constitution. To give an (absurd) example...
In a hidden clause of a contract (or EULA) it says that you agree to give up your first born child. If the other party tries to enforce that clause of the contract, the courts would invalidate that clause (and maybe the entire contract).
Unconscionability
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
in run->services.msc, stop and disable the securom service. In the Documents and Settings, in Application Data, delete the SecuROM folder. Delete UAService7.exe from windows\system32. Run "sc delete useraccess7" from the run command on the start menu, or from a command-line prompt. Delete the key [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\SecuROM] from the registry.
Note: This will, of course, stop any SecuROM game from functioning until you reinstall it, and various games may put the actual files in different places....but this should give you a starting point. I haven't actually tried this...although I plan to when I get home tonight. But it looks sane enough to me.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
Reading over the legal filing for the creature creator demo, a few very specific complaints are made.
It allegedly disables a number of semi legitimate (Any DVD, Daemon tools), and completely legitimate (Process Manager, Alchohol 120%) software tools. (10 specific programs are named) It also claims that it interferes 'in some circumstances' with having a secondary CD drive (I assume it prevents burning a copy of a CD that's in the other drive), and that all of this occurs whether the demo is running or not.
Looking at the filing, they mention process manager as its own claim, given that this is a legitimate tool used to identify rogue processes, EA can't really claim, (falsely or otherwise) that it is a piracy tool, the way they'll surely claim with the others. AnyDVD is a particularly interesting one as well, since to my knowledge, it only affects movies, and has nothing to do with any EA product at all.
I can't actually say if the claims are correct for the specific version of SecuROM in the demo game, or if a lawyer simply looked at the things SecuROM is known to do and filed those, depends on how bright s/he is I suppose.
Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite (TM)
http://www.reclaimyourgame.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&layout=blog&id=17&Itemid=57 this site has all the information to contact the lawfirms handling 4 EA lawsuits over DRM covering Spore, Mass Effect, The Sims and other EA games
This article has a fairly comprehensive list addressing the "how is it harmful" question.
The truth is, most people will never notice that SecuROM is installed. But if you do run into a problem, SecuROM is very hard to remove, and in fact goes to great lengths to conceal its presence.
This happened to me once- I bought something from Microsoft - same exact situation. I couldn't see the policy until I opened the software, and once I opened the software I couldn't return it even if I disagreed with it and didn't install it. I went to the store and raised a fuss with the manager. First they attempted to tell me that if I didn't agree with the terms I could return it to *Microsoft*. After I kept pushing it (I went to a different store location), the manager there told me that if I didn't agree with the terms I could bring it back to the store. Turns out the terms weren't as onerous as I thought they'd be, so I kept it. But it was nice to know what my options were.
Ok, looking at the complaint over Sims 2: Bon Voyage, the same allegations of not informing the consumer of SecuROM is made (including not making the user agree to it in the EULA, which is moronic in the extreme in my completely non legal advice opinion, EA may lose this on the basis of having crappy lawyers). In this case, ambiguity as to exactly what SecuROM does is lessened, since the primary plantiff's personal experiences are listed.
Allegedly, backup CDs of other Sims 2 games stopped working. Her USB flash drive and Ipod failed (I assume this means it busted USB data transfer altogether),. Forum posts of the time indicate numerous people having the issue after installing the Bon Voyage expansion.
There is not, as far as I can tell, any hard evidence linking the problem to SecuROM, since she neglected to try and duplicate the issue after an operating system reinstall, and 'Dell tech support said so' isn't really reliable evidence. These issues could be from another program, a virus other than SecuROM, or just a bug in the game (iTunes does similar things on occasion after all). Seems like a weak case, though they could be building a better analysis of SecuROM as I speak.
Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite (TM)
It might sound like a dumb idea and has no reason (there is no disc to authenticate with), but the DRM is present in demo versions only because crackers used to use demos to crack the retail versions of the games. They were a good starting point (especially with StarForce games) as most of the code to start the game was EXACTLY the same as what would appear in the retail version if it had not a copy protection placed on it.
Their EULA says nothing about installing hidden software that will never be removed.
Even by agreeing to the EULA you don't agree to "all things not mentioned."
If so where would it end? Could they search my harddrive for credit card information? Format my harddrive on a whim? Store their own stuff on my computer without telling me? Of course not!
The race isn't always to the swift... but that's the way to bet!
The 7th circuit court of the USA disagrees with you. Click through licenses are valid legal contracts.
Please see ProCD v Zeidenberg
I find being offended by me offensive.
Honestly, I support both opinions because I hate DRM. Even the cracked games still run the normal installers which still install SecuROM or SafeDisc or whatever they want to use at any given time.
I have a warezed version of Spore installed, and I don't see any of the SecuROM stuff (reg key, service, system32 file, etc)... so I'm not sure about that.
== Jez ==
Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
Not to mention as a PC repairman I have seen that these kinds of DRM can cause serious problems and even hardware damage. I've seen PCs that you couldn't burn anything with because the DRM would screw up the burn every time, I've replaced both DVD and CD burners because the DRM would throw them into PIO mode and burn them out,weird lockups and crashes of the entire system that magically disappear when they DRM infection was removed,etc.
Now I had no problem with the "you have to keep the CD in the drive" old school DRM. It was irritating but was easy enough to get around with a noCD and still kept Joe Average from just hitting copy in Nero. But today's DRM is just too damned nasty,and has more in common with virus infections that legitimate software. It hides from the user,it makes itself a royal PITA to get rid of,and it causes all kinds of PC screwups that are damned hard to track down. Actually I'd say some of the newer trojans actually behave better than the new Starforce and SecuROM infections,since they leach off the bandwidth without causing all kinds of errors.
It has gotten bad enough that when a customer brings in a PC for cleaning and repair I look for SecuROM and Starforce just like I look for worms and trojans. Because the "virus free" computers that are brought to me because they are screwing up always seem to have either SecuROM or Starforce on them,and its removal makes the problems go away. They are just going to have to face the fact that like Apple's iTunes DRM,the best you can do without boning your customers is stop the casual pirates. Because this new DRM infection only screws your paying customers and as we saw with Spore the pirates had their copy before it was even released.
And while I love MoH and C&C I simply won't be giving EA another dime of my hard earned money until they get rid of the infections on their products. My gaming PC runs quite stable and well and I have no intention of breaking it just for the privilege of giving EA $60. Sorry C&C and MoH developers,but you lost a long time fan and paying customer thanks to the viruses installed in your games by EA.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
I have not tried, but I suppose you can.
But that is not the point. The point is that SecuRom on purpose makes illegal filenames to block normal Windows file commands from working on those files.
How about you RTFA, or even the summary?
"EA's EULA for Spore Creature Creator Free Trial Edition makes utterly no mention of any Technical Protection Measures, DRM technology, or SecuROM whatsoever."
It was not in the EULA, so EA has installed software on the users computer without the users knowledge.