Spore DRM class-action lawsuit – untrue allegations of PC breaking?

Spore could have been a classic videogame, but one thing and one thing alone has let it down: the decision by EA to include some ridiculously draconian DRM limitations in the release of the PC version. This decision has already seen the DRM issues dominate discussions of the game, and now a class-action lawsuit has been filed.

When Spore was released at the beginning of September, the actual game garnered mostly good reviews from gaming and mainstream sites alike. But within days, there was a problem, with the DRM limitations coming to light and annoying those who had bought the game and those of us who hate to see people being shafted over when they’ve paid full price for a product.

The DRM limitations mean the disc has to be in the drive to operate and online activation is required, which is limited to three per copy. Gamers unhappy with the SecuROM DRM let their feelings be known by carpet-bombing Amazon’s review page for Spore. There are now almost 3,000 reviews on the site, most of which give the game one star purely on account of the DRM issues.

The DRM was put in place by EA to prevent piracy, but the problem is it simply doesn’t work. In fact, it was revealed that Spore became one of the most pirated computer games ever released just a week after it made its début.

The Amazon debacle was one thing but miffed gamers are now stepping up the fight somewhat. According to the Courthouse News Service, a class-action lawsuit has now been filed in San Jose, California, against Electronic Arts. As Ars Technica explains, the grounds for the action are that the installation of SecuROM is not disclosed in any way before you load the game, once installed it becomes “uninstallable”, and it can even affect the performance of your system.

Once installed, [SecuROM becomes] a permanent part of the consumer’s software portfolio. Even if the consumer uninstalls Spore, and entirely deletes it from their computer, SecuROM remains a fixture in their computer unless and until the consumer completely wipes their hard drive through reformatting or replacement of the drive.

While the game manual doesn’t mention the SecuROM system by name, the DRM measures are mentioned. And while the game doesn’t come with an uninstaller for SecuROM, one is available from the official website.

There is an argument that EA should have been more forthcoming about the specific DRM measures being installed alongside the game, and forcing customers to find the uninstaller for themselves is no doubt shabby, but, the lawsuit may fall down on those two points alone.

Then there are the claims that the DRM measures can adversely affect your computer’s operating capabilities. These seem to have been wholly taken from some of the horror stories mentioned in the Amazon reviews and are very unlikely to stand up in court.

The Spore DRM was a bad idea, poorly implemented, and if it hadn’t been included, it’s highly likely that the game would have got nothing but positive publicity. However, a poor decision does not make grounds for a class-action lawsuit, and this looks to be nothing more than a jumped up attempt on the part of some to make money out of the whole sorry mess.

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