EA has just had a couple of class-action lawsuits filed against them in the US. The first cites the "deceptive and unlawful" installation of the much-hated SecuROM DRM on customer's PCs during the installation for the Spore Creature Creator.

The second lawsuit holds a similar complaint, with one lady's copy of The Sims 2: Bon Voyage and its unacknowledged DRM allegedly causing her computer to malfunction. More details can be seen here at GamePolitics with PDFs of the suits filed available for download.

 

Sliced Comments: Personally, I can understand the frustrations. What's the point of including RM on a free downloadable demo? To stop the illegal downloading of free demos over bittorrent?

I would love to play Mass Effect on PC but since the game is bundled with SecuROM I won't buy it. Dead Space looks good but I won't be playing that one either. For me DRM means no sale and I know I'm not the only one.

I love how Americans find a small issue then jump on it for free money, their legal system is a joke at times.

"causing her computer to malfunction" - Unlikely, and even if it did, boo hoo - format and move on. At the very most she could sue and get maybe a new comp, which wouldn't cost a 10th of what it would cost to take EA to court.

I've had DRM kill a DVD Burner on me before (goddamned Starforce) so yes, this shit can mess up your computer.

There is also a legal problem here. Your computer is yours, and you have the right to decide what goes on to it. If you're not aware that you're installing extra software that hides itself in your registry and can cause conflicts, that's a breach of privacy, not to mention potentially dangerous.

Remember the Sony CD rootkit debacle? Can you imagine what would have happened if one of those CDs had been ripped using a government computer and the vulnerabilities in the rootkit were used to gain access? All you had to do was preface a file with a certain string of characters and the rootkit would grant that file immunity. It was ridiculous.

No computer should be messed up by hidden and uninstallable software, especially when that software causes conflicts with other devices and leaves it open to potential harm. It's not just a matter of "boo hoo, the game didn't work, now I have to format, gimme some money". While I don't doubt that this woman wants money, there is a very solid legal argument against this sort of thing.

Just about every game client opens your computer to attacks - online ones anyway.

I agree that if it's rediculously close to a trojan or something, there should be action taken. But as for the government computer, you shoudn't be installing 3rd party software on it anyway.

I think EA should be forced to change the issue, or atleast state it on the packaging, but this woman doesn't deserve money unless it actually destroyed a system component.

She had to format to remove SecuROM, and it prevented her CD ROM, iPod and whatever from working with her computer (all allegedly of course).

If EA caused your iPod to shit itself you'd be pretty pissed too!

Yeah, I see your point.

I'm just sus of anyone in the US taking anyone to court.