<![CDATA[Kotaku: Securom]]> http://cache.kotaku.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/kotaku.com.png <![CDATA[Kotaku: Securom]]> http://kotaku.com/tag/securom http://kotaku.com/tag/securom <![CDATA[What, Exactly, Is DRM?]]> We've been mentioning DRM, or Digital Rights Management, a lot lately here on Kotaku. It's an important topic! Thing is, we've been made aware a lot of you don't entirely know what it is. If that's you, here's a guide. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5513060&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Battlefield Drops SecuROM DRM]]> The Steam version of EA's Battlefield Bad Company 2 is about to get a new patch, and amidst the little tweaks and fixes is some welcome news: the game's SecuROM DRM software will also be uninstalled. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5495130&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Dragon Age To Be SecuROM-Free]]> BioWare's spiritual successor to the Baldur's Gate series, Dragon Age: Origins, will ship without the unpopular SecuROM digital rights management and copy protection software that has been attached to previous Electronic Arts games. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5239869&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[PC Gaming Alliance Loses Activision, Picks Up...SecuROM]]> If only that were a joke headline. When we told you yesterday that Activision had left the PC Gaming Alliance, we were told that other parties had at the same time signed up. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5212391&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[EA Releases Tool To Bypass SecuROM Limitations]]> Publisher Electronic Arts has released a De-Authorization Management Tool for PC gamers afflicted with one of its many catalog titles packaged with SecuROM for digital rights management. This is for you, disgruntled Mass Effect owner. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5192830&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Spore Now Graciously Allows You To Reinstall Your Own Game]]> For many of you (not many of everyone, if you look at the sales charts), Spore's iron-fisted DRM was a big turn-off. Well, after promises, now EA have delivered, freeing up the game's installs. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5112857&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[GTA IV On PC TO Use SecuROM]]> I'll say this for Rockstar - they do like a controversy. Usually, though, they go in for cool controversies like sexy mini games or the sensationalised depiction of car crime and bullying. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5099919&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[EA Boss: Nobody Cares About DRM (But I Totally Hate It)]]> For a while there, the whole SecuROM thing overshadowed the actual release of Spore. Which when you consider how high-profile a release Spore was is kind of a big deal. As a result, your thoughts on DRM are clear. But what about EA's thoughts? Well, according to EA boss John Riccitiello, the number of people who even noticed it, let alone cared about it, was minuscule. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5063443&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[EA Responds To Spore Forum Banning Concerns]]> When Spore owners were silenced by forum moderation staff for posting one too many SecuROM/DRM complaints on the game's official message boards, the internet-going masses were worked up into a lather. "Censorship!" they cried. "Business practices to which I don't agree with!" they shouted. A vague warning about your Spore user account being banned in conjunction with your forum account likely didn't help matters, giving the impression that loose talk about copy protection could render your game useless. More responsible forum moderators tried to clear the air yesterday and EA itself let us know that the warning was completely out of line and, more importantly, totally inaccurate. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5054372&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Class Action Lawsuit Arises Over Spore DRM]]> Whenever you find large numbers of unhappy people, you're bound to find a lawyer. In this case it's Alan Himmelfarb with KamberEdelson of Vernon, California, who has filed a class-action suit against EA over the DRM in EA's Spore. The suit, filed Monday with the Northern California District Court on behalf of plaintiff Melissa Thomas and "all consumers globally who have purchased the Spore computer game", addresses complaints that consumers are not fully aware of what exactly SecuROM does on their system, and also cites a separate program that installs on the control center of the computer and can disrupt system functions. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5054175&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Penny Arcade Digs into DRM, Now With More Crecente]]> Last week Penny Arcade's own Tycho contacted me to see if I would be interested in writing a short piece for their site about Digital Rights Management. What with the escalating brouhaha with Electronic Arts and likelihood that this won't be the last time gamers run face first into some form of DRM they don't like, I jumped at the opportunity. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5054068&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Spore Loosens Up, Allows Multiple Account Registrations]]> And EA's DRM back-tracking continues! First it was the number of times you could install Spore, now they've announced that they're loosening the ridiculous restrictions on the number of Spore accounts you could have on a single PC. Initially this was restricted to a single account, meaning families/friends/loved ones would have to share the same account. This has now been changed. While each installation can still only have one online account, each of those now has five "screen name accounts", which you can log in to every time you boot the game up. One for you, one for the missus, one for little Susie, etc etc. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5052045&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[EA To Loosen Spore Install Restrictions, Reveals Sampling of Spore Activations]]> To many PC gamers, Spore's most gruesome creation has been its digital rights management and copy protection implementation. EA's attempts to thwart piracy by limiting the number of concurrent installations hasn't sat well with users, a complaint they've expressed rather publicly. According to information obtained by MTV Multiplayer, that will be changing. A patch, coming in the "near future," will allow Spore owners to "de-authorize" a computer that has had the game installed, much like the DRM structure that Apple's iTunes uses. Will that satisfy the masses? According to EA, those masses demanding multiple installs aren't really all that massive. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5050860&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[DRM Haters Take Spore Protests To The Home Front]]> We know that Amazon users do not take kindly to Spore's DRM measures. Seems Spore users don't either. GameCulture have dug up a number of anti-SecuROM creatures/vehicles people have seeded in the game's creation galleries, which range from the absurd to the surprisingly clever. Our pick's probably the Veroflraptor, a hideous creature that "is known to spray excessive DRM and overhype on its attackers". DRM Evolved: Spore Users Create Creatures to Voice Their Displeasure [GameCulture, via Shacknews] More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5050341&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Spore Only Allows One Account, Even If You're Playing With Family]]> And the Spore/DRM issues just. Get. Worse. Despite the game's manual shipping with the promise that you can set up multiple Spore accounts on the one PC, turns out that in fact the game won't let you do this. Got more than one Spore player in the house? A friend or loved one? Sorry, they'll have to either play as you in your account, or get their own damn copy. The anti-piracy stuff, as awful as it is, is at least defensible in theory. This, though, this is just mean. Want More Than One Account On Your 'Spore' Game? Buy Another Copy [Consumerist] More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5049765&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[EA Sticking With SecuROM (Though Red Alert 3's Will Go A Little Easier On You)]]> Because it includes Draconian DRM program SecuROM, Spore's taking a bit of a pounding at the moment. Same thing happened to Mass Effect, same thing happened to BioShock. The message is fairly clear: people know what SecuROM does, and they do not want. EA's response to this? To let you eat cake. They're sticking with the software, whether you like it or not, and upcoming RTS title Red Alert 3 will be coming bundled with it. This time, though, they're going a little easier on you, allowing you five installs (and a few other minor tweaks). Like the other games, though, spare a thought for the dev team. It's not their decision to implement SecuROM, it's EAs, and the following plea from the team makes clear just how polarising a topic this has become:
Red Alert 3 is shaping up to be a world-class RTS game that will give you many hours of enjoyment. I think it would be a shame if people decided to not play a great game simply because it came with DRM, but I understand that this is a very personal decision for many of you and I respect that. As you might imagine, I'm a lot less respectful of those people who take the position that they will illegally download a game simply because it has DRM.
For a full run-down of Red Alert 3's specific blend of SecuROM, hit the link below. So what's the deal with copy protection in Red Alert 3? [EA] More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5047048&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Amazon Reviewers Do Not Take Kindly To Spore's DRM]]> Despite some early, Germanic hiccups, Spore seems to be going down quite well with both the reviewing and buying public at large. Oh, except the kids over at Amazon. Despite enjoying the game itself, they've bombarded the game with 1-star reviews, as backlash for EA's insistence on using the awful Securom anti-piracy measures, which limit the number of times you can install a game on your PC. At time of writing, there were over 100 "reviews" of the game, nearly 90 of them giving the game a single, damning star. Might sound petulant to some, but if you're going to protest against something you don't like, you may as well do it somewhere effective (ie the world's largest online retailer) as opposed to somewhere ineffective (ie your navel-gazing gaming messageboard of choice). Spore losing the DRM Fight [Fred Benenson's Blog, via Boing-Boing] More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5046552&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Spore To Use Online Authentication]]> Despite some hand-wringing by fans, EA today announced that their hugely anticipated Will Wright game Spore will not make use of SecuROM's 10-day periodic re-authetication and instead use a modified version to require online authentication. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5008454&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[BioWare Backs Down From Draconian Mass Effect Authentication]]> When Mass Effect comes to the computer it will not use SecuROM's 10-day periodic re-authentication and instead will instead use a modification to do only a one-time online authentication, Bioware announced today. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5008452&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Levine Responds to BioShock Copy Protecton Woes]]> Once again Ken Levine comes out of the top-secret Levine-cave full of wondrous gadgets where he dwells in his imagination to address a major issue with 2K's new baby, BioShock. The concerns over SecuROM copy protection issues will soon be a thing of the past. In a thread posted on the 2K forums by a user named BioshockClassAction, Levine lays it on out.
I've followed up on the circular email with securom and we are working on this issue. I agree, it sucks, and we need to get that sorted.
More »
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