Rage over 'Spore' DRM turns into class action suit

EA has been sued in the Northern District of California over DRM software placed in its evolution simulator game Spore developed by Will Wright and Maxis.

Though the game itself is regarded very highly, any praise it has received has been greatly overshadowed by the public's vexation at the SecuROM copy protection that caps installations at three. In the midst of public complaints, EA later increased the install limit to five.

On Monday, EA was accused of violating the California Consumer Legal Remedies Act and Unfair Competition Law for failing to disclose that installation of Spore installs the SecuROM copy protection program as well.

The complaint is reminiscent of the 2005 class action lawsuit against Sony BMG in California for its use of rootkit-style DRM techniques on audio CDs. That suit cited the same laws, in addition to the Consumer Protection Against Computer Spyware Act.

As the complaint filed Monday reads (PDF available here, courtesy Courthouse News), "Although consumers are told that the game uses access control and copy protection technology, [they] are not told that this technology is actually an entirely separate, stand-alone program which will download, install, and operate on their computers along with the Spore download...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."

The filing asks for a class action where all plaintiffs are refunded their $49.99 purchase price plus damages for the unwelcome installation on their hard drives.

According to TorrentFreak, Spore has earned the title most pirated game, and gauged strictly by the number of illegal downloads of the title, EA has already lost over $25 million in sales. Yesterday, EA said Spore has sold over a million copies since its September 7 release.