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New EA SecuROM lawsuits claim DRM was put in free download photo

The furor over Electronic Arts' decision to put SecuROM in its products has resulted in two new class-action suits. They were both filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Interestingly, the allegations include EA deceptively spiking its free download, the Spore Creature Creator, with SecuROM. Richard Eldridge, who has filed this particular complaint, states that the act "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."

Dianna Cortez filed the other complaint, which is aimed at The Sims 2: Bon Voyage. She alleges that the controversial SecuROM program gave her computer problems and stopped her accessing files on her USB flash drive or iPod.

Of course, this all has to be proven in a court of law, but if the accusation of SecuROM in the Spore Creature Creator is true, then I have to seriously question what the Hell is wrong with Electronic Arts. It's free, it doesn't need DRM. The only explanation is that EA used the free download to duplicitously safeguard against future "piracy" on that computer by smuggling through the DRM in advance. That is one of the most vile things I've heard of in this growing war against piracy and second-hand sales. I'm no fan of lawsuits, but if the Creature Creator allegation is true, I hope EA gets toasted.








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Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize. Likes PS2, iPod Touch, Silent Hill 2, Metal Gear Solid, Dynasty Warriors 3 Meet the rest of the team



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20 comments | showing # 1 to 20
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scsitransfer's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/10/2008 11:36
scsitransfer
Really EA, You're not making any friends....You might have to fire MORE employees to pay off your legal debt heh.
Grimhound's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/10/2008 11:38
Grimhound
Spore Creature Creator, both paid and demo versions, have SecuROM integrated. The demo is simply the exact same thing with the parts disabled.
Jon2309's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/10/2008 11:40
Jon2309
Wow, neither of mine have Securom. At least, not any more.
Grimhound's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/10/2008 11:41
Grimhound
Also, don't mean to double post, but I have had serious issues with my Zune while SecuROM has been on my computers on the past. Part of me wonders if there's some actual emphasis in Sony's code of disabling non-Sony media devices.
CBunn's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/10/2008 12:00
CBunn
Jim, Copy protection is added to demos and free stuff, so they can't use the creature creator executable to crack the full version executable. Not that it made any difference in that whole "released for free and without DRM a whole week before paying customers could buy it" case
king3vbo's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/10/2008 12:12
king3vbo
SecuROM has been known to screw with USB before
Rathe989's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/10/2008 12:14
Rathe989
EA is an american company which means it is a part of the free market capitalism. there is no way in hell the courts will interfere with someone's profits. im shocked they havent rewritten the constitution to protect the shareholders rights to profit off every thing possible.
gamadaya's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/10/2008 13:21
gamadaya
Look, the moral is to just steal it.
realyst's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/10/2008 13:21
realyst
Even if it wasn`t in SecuRom, it definitely WAS in the BioShock demo.
Kaspar's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/10/2008 13:30
Kaspar
Hell yeah, SecuROM fucked up the USB devices on my old PC.
Couldn't use my mp3 player for months.
Emrah's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/10/2008 13:30
Emrah
Yeah, bioshock DEMO had it, was about to say..
Debeo Laurus's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/10/2008 13:42
Debeo Laurus
I say we tar and feather them, I've got the feathers!

F'n Warlocks is what EA seems to be full of.
psycho terror2's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/10/2008 14:32
psycho terror2
"Of course, this all has to be proven in a court of law"

when it comes to computer related stuff it seems that nobody really has to prove anything in court, they just pay an expert to spout technobabble and nobody asks questions.
JamnOnTheOne's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/10/2008 14:54
JamnOnTheOne
@psycho_terror

If it's important enough these guys get involved.

http://www.fsf.org/
Darren Nakamura's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/10/2008 14:55
Darren Nakamura
I didn't think Spore Creature Creator was a free download...

I know you can pay money to buy a disc at Amazon (link), so I'm not sure why they would do that in addition to having a free download of the software.
xenon's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/10/2008 15:43
xenon
This industry is quickly surpassing the music one in terms of suckage factor. DRM, DLC, the war on preowned games, the ESRB - Fallout 3 incident... I am frankly disgusted.
Aaron Mxy Yost's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/10/2008 15:54
Aaron Mxy Yost
@ Dexter: They had a free demo version of the Creature Creator that left out half or so of the parts, people who bought the full version of it got everything that was to be offered in the retail game.
Knivy's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/11/2008 15:14
Knivy
@mekansz
I agree

turkcell parça kontör !!!
Holyetheline's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/12/2008 11:41
Holyetheline
That's so messed up.
Holyetheline's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/12/2008 11:42
Holyetheline
@Knives

hahahahaha
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