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EA admits to overreaching DRM in Spore, gamers still pissed
- September 24, 2008 11:55 AM PST
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Despite a quasi-apology, gamers file a class-action lawsuit against Electronic Arts for their draconian use of digital rights management in Spore.
Spore marred by DRM controversy
EA Games president Frank Gibeau addressed anxious gamers last Friday on the touchy issue of digital rights management as it pertains to Spore, which originally allowed only three installs.
"We've received complaints from a lot of customers who we recognize and respect," Gibeau said in a statement. "And while its easy to discount the noise from those who only want to post or transfer thousands of copies of the game on the Internet, I believe we need to adapt our policy to accommodate our legitimate consumers."
As a result, Electronic Arts expanded the number of eligible machines from three to five, promised more leniency in extending additional activations, and implemented a de-authorization system, much like the one used in BioShock for PC.
That didn't stop gamers from filing a class-action lawsuit on Tuesday, however. According to the Federal Court filing, Sony's SecuROM DRM program "is installed without notice and cannot be uninstalled, even if you uninstall Spore," and it "prevents the computer from operating under certain circumstances and/or disrupting hardware operations."
Incidentally, an EA moderator on the official Spore forums threatened to cancel accounts of still unsatisfied Spore owners. "SecuROM as been discussed and discussed so much and it causes arguments in threads," the moderator quipped. "If you want to talk about DRM SecuROM then please use another fansite forum.
"Please do not continue to post theses thread or you account may be at risk of banning which in some cases would mean you would need to buy a new copy to play Spore."
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- Sep 24 2008 at 12:02:44:PM PST
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DRM (in all it's forms) only hurts people who actually purchase the product... and that shouldn't be. People will always find ways to get around them. I have so many CDs that I had to illegally download just to add them to my MP3 player... ridiculous!
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After reading the whole article, not only am I not buying Spore but I hope they sue those bastards.
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Glad I didn't buy that game. DRM wouldn't be that big of a deal if they gave the consumers notice and it could be uninstalled along with the product in question.
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I bought it.I have no issue with this really.I will probably never need all 5.I'll install it on my next PC but I'll be over spore by the time I get another PC after that one. Great game and I am glad I didnt wait.
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I bought it.I have no issue with this really.I will probably never need all 5.I'll install it on my next PC but I'll be over spore by the time I get another PC after that one. Great game and I am glad I didnt wait.
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I bought it and I knew that Will Wright didn't do anything so it had to be EA
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i think after reading this article and going to the spore forum myself and reading what people had to say, i think it was wrong for the forum moderator to even state they will delete and ban people from the forum after shelling out the money on this game. DRM for all intents and purposes, so far causes nothing but problems for people who buy these products embedded with drm. and i think EA should really think about this in the future. They may make their fans angry and cause a backlash of anger and may cause people to stray away from buying their products.
if it was me and i was upset that i spent 60 bucks to get nothing but problems and to get the "you will be banned "threat is very unprofessional for starters. DRM didnt work for music cd's, why start now with games? i can understand why they did this threat to keep people from spamming the forum with complaints, but this could have been addressed a bit better. second EA needs to remember who made them one of the largest publishers in video games..the gamers themselves and if they burn the gamers, they will lose in the end.
I think EA needs to think about their customers and try hard not to piss them off.
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Piracy is clearly a big problem in all forms of media. The media companies all should sit down and come up with a effective method to limit abuses.
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