SecuROM Lawsuit in the Works

magerette · December 5, 2008

The unpopular DRM from SonyDADC used prominently for anti-piracy purposes by game publisher EA and others is facing yet another class action lawsuit related to the popular creature sim, Spore. BluesNews posts a link to a GameCyte article:

On November 26th, California resident Alex McQuown added one more Spore suit to the pile — but this one’s a little bit different. This time, attorneys are attempting to use Spore as a symbol for Electronic Arts’ entire SecuROM initiative, and hope to shut it all down at the same time.
Filed in California’s Northern District Court by attorneys from the offices of Finkelstein Thompson, the body of the lawsuit looks much the same as the three submitted by Thomas, Eldridge and Cortez earlier this year. In much the same way, it calls out SecuROM for secretly installing itself on the computers of unwitting Spore Creature Creator users; in much the same way, it talks about SecuROM as a pest that interferes with other software and hardware, and one that can never be completely removed.

This suit differs from others in the following:

First, his lawyers claim that SecuROM isn’t merely a nuisance, but that it actually causes physical harm to the computers of those who use it. The document cites “a damaged CD-ROM drive” and “a damaged graphics card” among McQuown’s issues, and states that the class members “will have to spend countless hours and money to repair the damage to their computer.” (bolding ours)

Second, the document suggests that SecuROM is useless even for its intended purpose, and thus that “EA has needlessly caused [sic] its consumers time, money and frustration by having to repair various computer problems.”
...third, buried near the end of the document, is the kicker — the lawsuit isn’t just about Spore: The class[bringing the suit] is initially defined as follows: All persons or entities in the United States that have purchased an Electronic Arts computer game with SecuROM.

More information.

rbtroj · December 5, 2008

Amen. I hope SecuROM gets put out of business. The last PC I owned had the cd-writer fried first by StarForce and later by SecuROM. I boycotted any titles shipping with SecuROM up until major publishers began defending it, claiming that its latest iterations avoided all such problems. After all, the publisher wouldn't lie to me, right? (Yeah, I'm an idiot.)

Sure enough, within a week of installing a SecuROM "protected" (from what, I wonder) game my cd-burner and dvd-burner mysteriously stopped being able to write.

I wonder if any software pirates have run into any difficulties with DRM. No? Didn't think so.

Someone needs to start an Obama-style campaign against DRM. Maybe then we (me included) would actually be compelled to vote with our wallets. The absolute only way to affect change with these companies is to hit their bottom line, so we should stop complaining and then stop buying. They'd get the message really quick then, methinks.

kalniel · December 5, 2008

Damaged CD-rom? Damaged graphics card? It's luny cases like this that water down the genuine case against SecuROM. It'll just lose badly, then be used as a precedent making everyone have to work twice as hard at twice the expense just to put across a sensible claim.

zakhal · December 5, 2008

rbtroj said:
Amen. I hope SecuROM gets put out of business. The last PC I owned had the cd-writer fried first by StarForce and later by SecuROM.

How did you find out that it was specifically starforce/securom that destroyed your cd-writes? I had 5 cd-drives brake down before these DRMs were even invented and they all broke down simply due to wear and cheap construction. The last drive I bought cost nearly 100€ and it has lasted flawlessly for 4 years even though I play lots of starforce/securom games.

wolfing · December 5, 2008

the only hint I have that SecuROM is affecting my drive is that whenever I start a game that uses it, my DVD drive emits a really awful noise

MasterLich · December 5, 2008

Well, as long as the breaking down of the drives cannot be reproduced, there's no hope of proving anything.

rbtroj · December 5, 2008

zakhal said:
How did you find out that it was specifically starforce/securom that destroyed your cd-writes? I had 5 cd-drives brake down before these DRMs were even invented and they all broke down simply due to wear and cheap construction. The last drive I bought cost nearly 100€ and it has lasted flawlessly for 4 years even though I play lots of starforce/securom games.

New PC.

Drives worked before install of SecuROM protected game.

Drives don't work after install of SecuROM protected game.

No other installs or system changes between time of SecuROM install and discovering the problems.

You right, it's impossible for me to say without the tiniest bit of doubt that it was SecuROM, so I'll just invoke Occam's Razor.

blatantninja · December 5, 2008

kalniel said:
Damaged CD-rom? Damaged graphics card? It's luny cases like this that water down the genuine case against SecuROM. It'll just lose badly, then be used as a precedent making everyone have to work twice as hard at twice the expense just to put across a sensible claim.

I can't defend or deny these accusations, but software can most definitely cause hardware failure. Just screw with the firmware.

zakhal · December 5, 2008

blatantninja said:
I can't defend or deny these accusations, but software can most definitely cause hardware failure. Just screw with the firmware.

If thats the reason then every broken cdrom/graphics card can be easily faulted to DRM. Just dig up the firmware that is still inside and show that its not the same anymore as before installing of the DRM. No one has done that yet.

zakhal · December 5, 2008

wolfing said:
the only hint I have that SecuROM is affecting my drive is that whenever I start a game that uses it, my DVD drive emits a really awful noise

The drives I had before DRMs did all kinds of weird noises and mechanical stuff. One even had a habbit of opening the bay and the closing it repeatetly all by itself in fast motion. That was really spooky.

Ionstormsucks · December 5, 2008

SecuROM is one big pos. I don't care if it crashes or damages CDRoms - what it definately does is violating customer rights and it's time it gets put out of business.

Squeek · December 5, 2008

The same kind of thing that happened to rbtroj (nice name, btw) happened to me. I installed X2 on a brand-new machine and suddenly started getting blue screen errors when using my CDRW.

I had never heard of SecuROM or its issues, so I just tinkered for a while for what added up to a total of about six hours until the problem went away (don't ask me how, because I forget).

Sometime later I learned about SecuROM and how it was supposed to be infamous for causing those kinds of blue-screen errors. I was sure miffed when I found that out.

Bill Gates more or less proved that the US legal system has a very tough time addressing technical issues. I think the people who came up with SecuROM are definitely guilty of something or other and should be held responsible. But I don't see it happening.

kalniel · December 5, 2008

If they're guilty of something then the worst thing you can do it cry wolf and exaggerate the problems - because when it's disproved the other claims that might actually be true lose credibility. That's my point.

zakhal · December 5, 2008

Squeek said:
The same kind of thing that happened to rbtroj (nice name, btw) happened to me. I installed X2 on a brand-new machine and suddenly started getting blue screen errors when using my CDRW.

I had never heard of SecuROM or its issues, so I just tinkered for a while for what added up to a total of about six hours until the problem went away (don't ask me how, because I forget).

Sometime later I learned about SecuROM and how it was supposed to be infamous for causing those kinds of blue-screen errors. I was sure miffed when I found that out.

Didnt X2 the threat (if thats the x2) use starforce not securom? Also the game is infamous for crashes because its a buggy game! X3 was even worse.

kalniel · December 5, 2008

X2/3 (nonTC) used starforce, yes.

Starforce is the only program that's ever caused me a problem, with burning CD-Rs, but a simple firmware update at my end fixed the problem and I've not had a problem since (good for Space Rangers

)

Squeek · December 5, 2008

Aha, my mistake. Well, then I was sure mad about Starforce!

It was very buggy, yes. So much that I decided to wait while for it to get patched before giving it another try. About three years later I installed it again and had problems immediately.

But a lot of fans speak very highly of X2. My guess is I had ATI when I probably should have had Nvidia.

kalniel · December 5, 2008

I doubt it - I ran it fine on ATI.

Hedek · December 5, 2008

kalniel said:
Damaged CD-rom? Damaged graphics card? It's luny cases like this that water down the genuine case against SecuROM. It'll just lose badly, then be used as a precedent making everyone have to work twice as hard at twice the expense just to put across a sensible claim.

Very well summed up.

Imo, the biggest argument against SecuROM is how it only affects legit customers. Pirates will get a no-CD cracked version anyway, and will not only play for free, but also have a better experience doing it (games load/run faster when you don't need to have a DVD in your drive).

I know that's not a valid claim for a lawsuit. I just wish publishers would stop wasting their money on Sony's SecuROM and start looking for something smarter to protect their products instead.

Thaurin · December 6, 2008

I say we go back to codewheels.

Corwin · December 6, 2008

Best suggestion in a LONG time; I still have some of mine- Bards Tale 3 for example!!

SecuROM Lawsuit in the Works

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