And you thought the Spore DRM Issue was finally at an end, eh? Hardly, since a bunch of Spore owners have banded together and have filed a class-action lawsuit against the game’s publisher, Electronic Arts.
The lawsuit claims that the DRM program, SecuROM, actually interferes with the standard operation of the computer’s operating system. For those of you who don’t know what an OS is, I’ll translate: It breaks Windows (or OS X, whatever). The suit claims that the program is installed without the permission of the user, and that once the program is installed it cannot be removed — even if the user uninstalls Spore.
From the Courthouse News Service:
Consumers are not warned about the program, which is installed without notice and cannot be uninstalled, even if the uninstall Spore, the complaint states. The secret SecuROM program is “secretly installed to the command and control center of the computer (Ring 0, or the Kernel), and surreptitiously operated, overseeing function and operation on the computer, preventing the computer from operating under certain circumstances and/or disrupting hardware operations,” the complaint states.
I usually have an opinion about these kinds of things. But then I remember that I refused to buy Spore until the DRM complaints have been dealt with, so rock on with the lawsuit.
(thanks Michael V.)
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Hell YEAH! i hope they win this shit! i absoluty hate EA and SecuROM and the owner of SecuROM SONY! so ill hope they lose and get big ass fine!
EA sucks and should be sued for more bs they do.
I second that hell yeah!
I’m actually mad at them for sticking this terrible DRM on another title – Crysis warhead – and decided I will not buy it until something will be done about that rootkit that comes with it.
Maybe that lawsuit will show companies that gamers won’t put up with any arbitrary punishment that is inflicted upon them for paying for a product.
I’m not sure this will get very far. I complained to SECUROM, they were extremely apologetic and sent me a zip file with a program to uninstall their product.
A far better approach would be to sue EA games, because neither the box packaging or the advertising inform the buyer that they are limited to 3 (now 5) activations.
In other words both the box and advertising mislead purchasers into thinking that the game like most other PC games can be installed as many times as they like, but there can only be one instance of the installation at any one time and the user must be the legal owner of the disk.
This is what one would class as a reasonable expectation.
Good luck, I hope they win, because I think DRM is killing PC gaming.
RobP
OK, i cant PROVE this but after i installed spore, about a week later my computer has been having tons of stop errors, honestly i had never seen a blue screen of death on XP (I thought they were a myth in XP, I had problems with stop errors in all the DOS based OS’s but never in XP) anyway my point is, I strongly believe that SecuROM is to blame… but like i said, I cant prove it 0_o;..
Well according to WikiPedia on SecuRom here are the games I have installed on my PC:
BioShock
Mass Effect
NeverWinter Nights 2
Tomb Raider Anniversary
Those games have or use SecuRom. I really havent had any problems with that particular application “SecuRom” I’m not sure where people are getting the problem. Yes I understand that if you installed Spore and continiously get BSODs then you can blame Spore but why blame SecuRom?
I looked in my Registry Editior and found nothing under Local Machine for SecuRom; Secure but SecuRom. I searched everything
Then I went to MSConfig and checked under the Startup Tab or even Services and still saw nothing
Services.msc shows nothing of ‘SecuRom’ so unless its under a different name I cannot find it.
BTW I did find the Folder pertaining to SecuRom. Within Vista heres where to find it:
Computer>Local Hard Drive (C)>Users>(your name)>AppData>Roaming>SecuRom
*but you have to unhide files to show it*
Finally let me copy the .txt
—————————————————————————————————————————–
PLEASE DO NOT DELETE THE FILES IN THIS FOLDER BECAUSE YOU MIGHT LOOSE ESSENTIAL DIGITAL RIGHTS.
READ BELOW
—————————————————————————————————————————–
Technical Information for the PC Administrator:
The files securom_v7_01.dat and securom_v7_01.bak have been created during the installation of a SecuROM protected application.
It guarantees more user convenience because the original disc does not have to be in the local drive at all times anymore.
It is necessary for copy protected CDs, demo versions and protected software downloaded from the Internet.
The file contains your licences for all products which are SecuROM protected, therefore it will not be deleted automatically.
—————————————————————————————————————————–
PLEASE DO NOT DELETE THE FILE BECAUSE YOU MIGHT LOOSE ESSENTIAL DIGITAL RIGHTS.
—————————————————————————————————————————–
The information contained in securom_v7_01.dat will not be transferred to any other computer without your permission.
This security system is connected with a MS Windows Service called “SecuROM User Access Service”.
This module is started automatically when launching a protected application if the user is logged in with Windows administrator rights.
In case users do not have administrator rights we recommend to keep it running.
See http://www.securom.com for further information
—————————————————————————————————————————–
The following text is reproduced here to comply with OpenSSL license terms:
====================================================================
Copyright (c) 1998-2005 The OpenSSL Project. All rights reserved.
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
are met:
1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in
the documentation and/or other materials provided with the
distribution.
3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this
software must display the following acknowledgment:
“This product includes software developed by the OpenSSL Project
for use in the OpenSSL Toolkit. (http://www.openssl.org/)”
4. The names “OpenSSL Toolkit” and “OpenSSL Project” must not be used to
endorse or promote products derived from this software without
prior written permission. For written permission, please contact
openssl-core@openssl.org.
5. Products derived from this software may not be called “OpenSSL”
nor may “OpenSSL” appear in their names without prior written
permission of the OpenSSL Project.
6. Redistributions of any form whatsoever must retain the following
acknowledgment:
“This product includes software developed by the OpenSSL Project
for use in the OpenSSL Toolkit (http://www.openssl.org/)”
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE OpenSSL PROJECT “AS IS” AND ANY
EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE OpenSSL PROJECT OR
ITS CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL,
SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT
NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES;
LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT,
STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE)
ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED
OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
====================================================================
This product includes cryptographic software written by Eric Young
(eay@cryptsoft.com). This product includes software written by Tim
Hudson (tjh@cryptsoft.com).
@Larry
Well, thats very nice, that you dont have any problems with securom. Still, why isnt Securom removed, if i remove the particular game? That would be bad as it is, *but* it works on a very basics of the operating system. Acting like Malware it opens an aditional security risk, that cant be covered by MS.
And since you used Wikipedia to check for the games coming with Securom, you should check *what* securom else does. Its lot more than you stated here. Removing is not so easy and finaly:
It torments *only* the people which paid money for that.
I did; I visited Wikipedia and I see nothing that would affect me personally.
Then I saw a link to the actual website “SecuRom” and I found a couple FAQs I’m gonna post here (with a link)
24. Is SecuROM™ actually loaded onto my computer?
SecuROM™ is a copy control system implemented by software publishers to protect their intellectual property. In the course of implementing the solution, certain files are installed to allow the system to behave properly. These files are not malicious in any way and are easily removed by an end-user, if desired.
25. What is a registry key and why does SecuROM™ have an entry there that says “!CAUTION! NEVER DELETE OR CHANGE ANY KEY”
The Windows registry is a directory which stores settings and options for the operating system for Microsoft Windows. It contains information and settings for all the hardware, operating system software, most non-operating system software, users, preferences of the PC, etc. As part of the SecuROM Product Activation system, certain license information is stored within this “!CAUTION! NEVER DELETE OR CHANGE ANY KEY” registry key. The intention is to prevent users from inadvertently deleting keys/values stored beneath that key. In addition, the key name clearly states that users should not delete this part of the registry.
26. Does it change settings in my anti-virus program?
SecuROM™ makes no setting changes to any anti-virus program(s) (or any software for that matter).
Here is the link. I presume these FAQs are for distrubtors who want to use this “SecuRom” for thier products. Meaning lets say for instance you designed a computer game, you wanted to sell it, would you want to use SecuRom for your product? This link is the FAQs associated with it.
http://www.securom.com/support_faq.asp
LOL really its a great site for information on SecuRom; this also is in the FAQs
36. How do I remove SecuROM™ from my machine?
To remove all SecuROM™ related files please follow the instructions below. Before you start the uninstallation, close all programs which are running in the background.
The link below contains a tool which removes SecuROM:
http://www.securom.com/support/SecuROM_Uninstaller.zip
Please follow these steps:
Download the ZIP file
Extract the application into a temporary folder
Launch the application and follow the instructions.
A dialog box will appear. To start the SecuROM uninstallation, press the button.
Note that you need administrator rights to run this uninstallation utility.
This uninstallation process will not remove the SecuROM DRM license information. Removing the license information would result in a lost activation. This uninstall process allows you to remove SecuROM-related files without losing a purchased software activation.
So the game will run, if securom is uninstalled?
i doubt that.
Dosnt change the fact, that securom isnt deinstalled with the game its installed with. The lawsuit states, that EA doesnt point out that securom is an additional progamm. So some of the users wouldnt know. And if the people are getting some paranoia about securom, its still EAs fault.
Having a potential risc dosnt mean it will be exploited, just i may be exploitet. As i said, if everything is fine with you…
…its fine…for you!
I completly understand EAs wish to save their investment, but i am too under the impression, that they are doing it on the backs of their honest customers.
Tomb Raider Anniversary is running nicely on my box, but to get Command and Conquer TW to work , i needed a crack for my “cane edition”. not very reassuring.
You would think that these idiots would learn after the Sony rootkit music CD copy protection scandal of 2005? Neil Diamond had went back to work with Rick Rubin (American Recordings) because he said that the Sony rootkit scandal screwed him over big time. My laptop that I had in high school (Pentium 3 750 mhz, Windows 2000 Pro, Internet Explorer 6) got messed up by the Sony rootkit software and my stepdad, a civilian PC technician for the US Army, spent hours trying to fix it and ended up wiping the hard drive and reinstalling Windows. Now my friend’s coworker’s sister claims that her college’s PC technician said that Spore’s SecuROM DRM had caused her laptop to freeze up whenever she tries to start any other program then IE7, Firefox, or Opera for Windows. Thank God that she backed up her work on her USB flash drive and took her factory reinstall image CDs with her.
Ben