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Nevermind cute protests, gamers have decided to take a legal stand against Electronic Arts for the DRM software SecuROM utilized in their PC title Spore. Here's an excerpt from the court filing:

"What purchasers are not told is that, included in the purchase, installation, and operation of Spore is a second, undisclosed program. The name of the second program is SecuROM, which is a form of Digital Rights Management (DRM) for computer game. Although consumers are told the game uses access control and copy protection technology, consumers are not told this technology is actually an entirely separate, stand-alone program which will download, install, and operate on their computers, along with the Spore download. Consumers are given no control, rights, or options over SecuROM. The program is uninstallable. Once installed it 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."

It goes on to say SecuROM is "secretly installed to the command and control center of the computer (Ring 0, or the Kernel), and surreptitiously operated, overseeing function and operation on the computer, preventing the computer from operating under certain circumstances and/or disrupting hardware operations."

This is akin to the complaints surrounding BioShock when it was released on the PC, though no legal action was taken.

The plaintiffs are demanding "disgorgement of unjust profits and damages for trespass, interference, unfair competition and consumer law violations."

On a related note, a moderator on EA's forums recently got a bit carried away on the subject of DRM with a user. Here's an excerpt from their post:

"SecuROM as been discussed and discussed so much and it causes arguments in threads. If you want to talk about DRM SecuROM then please use another fansite forum. If there is any change you will be able to read it on the official Spore site.

Please do not continue to post theses thread or you account may be at risk of banning which in some cases would mean you would need to buy a new copy to play Spore."

Further down we see a Maxis team member placating the comments:

"We are happy to support healthy exchanges on the forums. And people will only get banned for breaking the rules. Discussing DRM is not breaking the rules - and as long as it is a civil conversation, it's cool with us."

Looks like EA has some consistencies to work out, no?