Electronic Arts slapped with more DRM lawsuits

Hired the same lawer it isn't Jack Thomason is it lol.

I am suprised that the Free Trial edition of Spore would have DRM in it, it's only a limited demo. As for The Sims 2 expansion why would they add DRM to that and not the rest. My brother's wife is a freak for the Sims 2 she has most of there expansions. They've installed them all on a Phenom VISTA machine everything works fine on his DVD-RW and USB Drives.

I understand DRM for PC games but companies like EA should put on the back of the case a warning about the DRM and a small ted bit on limited installs. Only DRM problem I have is with Microsoft and it's XBOX 360 content but that's for another day.

Shame there's nothing like this doing the rounds in the UK.

It became apparent after speaking to SecuROM that they have no intention of providing an uninstaller that actually uninstalls their crap.

Speak to EA and their support haven't the remotest clue about anything to do with SecuROM.

All in all a complete fuckup.

If these cases come to fruition I will be asking EA for some cash for my troubles, and the cost of removal of their abysmal malware.

Yep, that sounds like a pretty good summary to me.

Honestly is a password and a serial too difficult? I don't mind it though I do mind DRM. Rights don't need management because then they aren't rights. Just like Blizzard's games if you want to play multiplayer you've got to have a legit key. Granted to make such an approach a game has to have desirable multiplayer capability. I wouldn't know in regards to EA, I don't buy their games.

What happened after the Sony Rootkit attack? If you would hack other people's computers with a rootkit and get caught, wouldn't you expect some serious criminal charges? The problem is that Sony's managers were not punished for their wrongdoing, neither in the EU, Japan nor the US, and neither will be anybody in charge at Electronic Arts. Fines and settlements are simply deducted from the workers' salary. Civil action against corporations have ZERO impact.

The correct thing to do is to store the purchased game in the cupboard and then download a cracked copy - no more problems. Or maybe just download the copy ?

Stick it to em people, SecuROM is EVIL and EA is incredibly stupid for using it. If this was disclosed in the EULA or something i wouldn't care, but that's the problem, it's not disclosed, what so ever. This is exactly why i waited and downloaded the cracked version online that *snips* SecuROM out of the software. As long as they continue to use SecuROM i'll never again buy another EA title, and tell all of my friends not to either.

This is why I haven't bought any EA games. It's too bad Dead Space looks really good.

This is mostly a comment to Dave C. regarding this question: "As for The Sims 2 expansion why would they add DRM to that and not the rest."

My undestanding is that EA games/Maxis didn't start using Securom when the Sims 2 was initially released. They only started using it after a few expansions had already been published. Thus, the initial game and the first few expansions don't have Securom, only the newer expansions do. It's probably cheaper for them to just keep putting out the orginal version of the game then to update each master copy to include Securom.

On a note unrelated to my reply to Dave C, I do agree that they are getting a bit absurd with their copy protection. A check for the CD-ROM in the drive, that's fine IMO. Same with asking the person to type in a keycode. But things like limited installs or a program like Securom that is at best a step away from a Trojan installed on one's hard drive are much too much. No, I don't pirate games, if a game has too much DRM for my tastes I simply don't buy it. But I wonder how many games are pirated that actually wouldn't be if the so called DRM punished the legitimate buyer less?

A good 50% of gamedemos install such crap that is then not (not even attempted to be) removed when removing the demo, for a few years already now, and it is NEVER mentioned.
Open services.msc and you will probably find several services like that if you try gamedemos, including ones proudly wearing the name 'sony'.

So that's what that DRM thing is supposed to do? Prevent unauthorised copying of the game? Ahh treating consumers like criminals and shady business practices is definitely worth that. I wonder how well it works.

Torrent: Spore-RELOADED 3.39gb, 2531seeders 3581 leechers.

Yep good to see paying customers have to deal with this nightmare for a worthy cause.

DRM has nothing to do with Piracy. It does not stop it, and it does not discourage it in the least, in fact it actually encourages piracy as the pirated games work better and require less effort on the part of the gamer. DRM does infact stop/limit reselling legitimately purchased games, so when you sell you copy of halo to your buddy after you beat it, your buddy will have to pony up additional money to the publisher in order to play it. It has started with PCs and it is now moving to the new internet connected consoles (http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/55828). Imagine if you got a new bike and you wanted to sell your old one to your friend, but your friend had to pay the bike maker before he could ride the bike he got from you. This is really getting ridiculous, and the game publishers need to get the message.

Sorry,

your source is a bit slow on the uptake. There are actually 4 lawsuits in total over EA's drm.

Links to filings and attorney contact details for all four lawsuits can be found at http://www.reclaimyourgame.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&layout=blog&id=17&Itemid=57