SecuROM and further DRM issues
In recent gaming news further development of the whole Digital Rights Management (DRM) debate and SecuROM i particular is blooming again. Once again the Spore debate is the latest news and the hidden installation of SecuROM that follows with it.
Electronic Arts (EA) claim they need the DRM to protect against software piracy, at the same time the irony of this is that only the customers who buy their software is those who are affected by it. The SecuROM is a piece of software embeded with the installation of several EA producs (Spore, Red Alert 3, The Sims etc) and what it does is install itself on the host computer much like a virus in that is hides itself and makes it very hard (impossible?) to remove once installed. The effect of SecuROM is that the computers ability to make identical CD-R copies is crippled and in some cases the software it is bundled with refuses to install if there are CD-duplicating softare allready installed.
Recent development in this area are som class-action lawsuits against EA for including this destructive piece of software, by some viewed pure malware. The software was even included in the promotional “Spore Creature Creator” trial edition that was distributed freely, no mention of the SecuROM software was included despite the fact that it does change the way your computer work.
