Digital Rights and Wrongs: The DRM Wars

Players of the PC version of Mass Effect are up in arms over the copy protection it uses, and worse, EA says the same system will be in Spore. This is the latest salvo in a year-long shootout over versions of Sony’s SecuROM product, which is getting increasingly intrusive. Each time a new version adds new restrictions, there’s a massive outcry… and then the next game comes out with an even more draconian policy. For a sense of the community’s mood, click this with care; there’s an angry guy in there.

The SecuROM version included with ME doesn’t just block illegal copying; it also “phones home” to check on the user (though no longer every 10 days as originally planned), and limits to three the number of times the game can be installed “on different hardware,” whether a new machine or a modified one.

This is not a new issue; the Starforce debacle gave intrusive DRM a bad name, and many companies stopped using it. But the gamer revolt reignited last summer, when the PC version of Bioshock incorporated a version of SecuROM requiring activation, and the activation servers didn’t work.

Next, SecuROM resurfaced in Bon Voyage, the sixth Sims expansion pack. There was no activation, but players still had problems ranging from their game disk not working to their optical drives and USB ports becoming unusable… leading to websites crammed with laments like “EA nearly cost me memories of my dying father”.

This version of SecuROM embeds itself in your PC’s operating system and stays there even if you uninstall the game. The program also hides its files and registry entries; people had to reformat their computers to eliminate it. There’s some controversy over whether this behavior makes SecuROM a rootkit… but whether or not it meets that definition, Wikipedia calls it malware.

EA eventually gave Simmers a removal utility. But without the DRM, the games become unplayable, and there are no refunds. This is how DRM schemes actually promote piracy: people wind up downloading a crack to play the games they already bought. Lo-tech Sims-playing grannies and girl scouts are being introduced to the dark side of BitTorrent… and who knows where that could lead.

Scarier yet, it’s no longer necessary to actually purchase a game to install SecuROM. It’s in the Bioshock demo, and according to the message boards, in the last Sims patch and the just-out Spore Creature Creator demo. Why copy-protect free software? Could the companies that adopt this tech actually be out to kill PC gaming? With some of the world’s most popular game franchises still on the PC, this seems like an odd corporate strategy… and yet so long as it’s a crapshoot whether any PC game you buy will play nicely or break your computer, force you into piracy, and take your lunch money, gamer resentment will keep growing. When Spore is released, we’ll see whether EA or the gaming community wins the staring match.