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For the gaming community globally, the latest in Electronics Art's anti-piracy software has sparked major debate and now a huge lawsuit from players.
The newly-launched "Spore" video game, where people play God, has an inbuilt 'devilish' anti-piracy software that propogates the players' computers.
A lawsuit has been filed in the federal court in Northern California. The plaintiff (a US woman) claims that people installing and playing the game, are not warned about intrusive "Digital Rights Management" (DRM) software that stays in the computer even after the game programs have been removed.
The lawsuit alleges that "Spore" publisher Electronic Arts, told buyers that there are anti-piracy safeguards, but did not advise people the SecuROM program it used "is essentially a virus that installs itself without warning". The DRM software attaches itself to the "command and control centers" of computers and can track activities, block certain operations and even disrupt hardware.
Although the plaintif has been named as the US woman, it will be seeking a class action status to represent all Spore buyers. They are demanding a jury trial, and expects Electronic Arts to be forced to pay unspecified damages, as well as pay all the money it has made from "Spore" since it was launched this month in Europe, Asia, Australia and the US markets.
"Spore" is the latest creation by Will Wright (the inventor of "The Sims").
[ABOUT THE GAME "SPORE"]
