http://www.courthousenews.com/2008/09/23/_Spore_Hijacks_Computers_Class_Claims.htm

Thought you all would be interested in this. Personally, I see this as one step forward to removing the Digital Rights Management software we have on our computers.

Thoughts?

Cheers,
Roboraptor

"completely wipes their hard drive"

I think they're exaggerating their claim a bit.

We are watching from the sidelines, they cannot hear you. We need to wait and see what happens.

Cheers,
Roboraptor

They are.

In fact, understanding the issues at play fairly well, I believe the lawsuit will either be dismissed as frivolous or settled vaguely amid EA's ever-relaxing-under-incredible-community-response standards.

But hey, maybe they'll take them for a ride and walk away with millions.

EDIT: In case anyone is concerned, the claim that SecuROM "cannot be uninstalled" is simply not true. You need to have it installed to play Spore, as well as Bioshock and an annoying host of other major releases (Mass Effect?) It can, however, be removed fairly simply upon uninstalling all associated programs.

matterialize wrote:

"completely wipes their hard drive"

I think they're exaggerating their claim a bit.

yeah alot of it is exagerated. DRM doesnt wipe your hard drive

This make it sound a lot worse than it is, almost comically so.

your right, but it also mentions that the consumber is not warned about the program, they may have an advantage there.

i bet even if they put it on the box people would still install it, or they would see it and say "oh, i have no clue what that is oh well i want spore"

EA even made an announcement that they would include this with their software, and people still installed it.

twobit wrote:your right, but it also mentions that the consumber is not warned about the program, they may have an advantage there.

However, it may be only there that they have the advantage

Cheers,
Roboraptor

and the filing says nothing about securom wiping the drive, its says

"SECUROM remains a fixture in there computure unless and until the customer completly wipes their hard drive through reformating or replacement of the drive.

Pugnap00 wrote:

matterialize wrote:

"completely wipes their hard drive"

I think they're exaggerating their claim a bit.

yeah alot of it is exagerated. DRM doesnt wipe your hard drive

Um...that's not the issue.

Someone posted PDFs of the actual court documents earlier, and the DRM can't be removed without wiping your harddrive, not the DRM wiping your harddrive.

to be honest it does sort of tell you you are installing it. you know that white box full of text you have to agree to to install the game, well in that it says the game uses various programs for copy protection and that there are install limits, it also tells you on the box that it needs activating and details of the install agreement can be found at a certain website

so it does warn you, if people cared that much they would read that in detail and search whats actually in the games they are installing before accepting that agreement

because ea can just turn around and say they accepted the agreement

there also stating unfair bisunes practices by not alowing certan programs to run and intefearing with hardware.

rocketgirl wrote:

Pugnap00 wrote:

matterialize wrote:

"completely wipes their hard drive"

I think they're exaggerating their claim a bit.

yeah alot of it is exagerated. DRM doesnt wipe your hard drive

Um...that's not the issue.

Someone posted PDFs of the actual court documents earlier, and the DRM can't be removed without wiping your harddrive, not the DRM wiping your harddrive.

This is incorrect.

There is no need at all to panic people about this. SecuROM sucks SPORE, but it's fully removable upon uninstalling all related software. The same is true of Starforce, which is not at all related to Spore and is actually WAY more imposing and potentially damaging.

Just wanted to clear that up.

commandert wrote:to be honest it does sort of tell you you are installing it. you know that white box full of text you have to agree to to install the game, well in that it says the game uses various programs for copy protection and that there are install limits, it also tells you on the box that it needs activating and details of the install agreement can be found at a certain website

so it does warn you, if people cared that much they would read that in detail and search whats actually in the games they are installing before accepting that agreement

because ea can just turn around and say they accepted the agreement

i actualy do read through that text. it says nothing about securom.