The new version of Securom demonstrates just how borked it is (Mass Effect)

[saraswati]

Hi!

As you'd be aware they announced the new version of Securom on the third of last month, the new version that's going to be on all EA games. Noone was happy about the fact that it was going to limit the number of times you reinstalled your pc to three installs. EA then stated tht this new version would let you reinstall on three pcs, and that you could reinstall it on the same pc as many times as you like.

This now appears to be EA's usual, colourful version of the truth. Mass Effect is the first game to get the new version of Securom, and Jfederated found a post on the Mass Effect board where a gamer made three straightforward hardware changes and then had a message pop up stating their license had expired and they needed to buy a new license. http://masseffect.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic.html?topic=635214&forum=104&sp=0#5844943
As we're all going to be subjected this for Spore and probably Sims 3, (barring the people who Arrr) I thought you'd all want to know about it..


 
Kath
http://securom.sublimesims.net/

[floopyboo]

I just spoke to my hubby (who stupidly bought Mass Effect recently) about this. He got all snotty & said 'No, they said on the website(what you said above that they said) as of three days ago." I said "well as of three seconds ago, I have heard that this is not true" etc.

Anyway, long story short, he's done his three installs already & hasn't yet tried again, but he said that if he does get that error message he'll be calling the better business bureau & making a complaint against EA, because it is illegal under Australian law & American law to install a program on someone's computer without informing them first.

Fuck what I said about not pirating Apartment Life. I want it, I'd be willing to pay for it except that if EA is going to break the law when I'm doing the right thing by them... well all I can say about piracy is 'tough shit, stumpy, you brought it upon yourself.'

[saraswati]

You should show your husband the screenshot.. EA has added a whole heap of stuff to the EULA for Mass Effect which more or less tries to indemnify them of everything short of Nuclear War. My friend read it to me, and it more or less says that if the product damages your pc, their only liability is to give you your money back for the game. We suspect the only reason why they're getting away adding Securom and putting ridiculous clauses in their EULA is because it hasn't been tested in court yet.

[notovny]

That sounds like the same EULA they've been using for years, actially, and a typical software EULA. THe only thing that seems out of the ordinary from your description is your claim that they'll refund your money if the software causes damage  to the computer. Most EULAs don't require the software maker to do that.

[saraswati]

Calalily went through it, and she's fairly thorough with these things. She found a lot of clauses in there that hadn't been in there before.

Regardless though, the 3 activations limit is totally new though, and noone wants that. Especially if it means you pay fifty bucks and your game lasts two days.

[morriganrant]

3 installs totally new? Didn't they do it for BioShock? That was one of the things that that group was pissed about as well, and it came out when BV did. Even it's damn demo came with Securom.

[saraswati]

This is the first time EA's done this.. and with the Bioshock game people have been yelling at Microsoft about that issue for long enough, that they've now stated they're going to release a version without the activations. (I was reading about it on one of the forums)

EA makes some interesting business decisions.. Sony gets it's arse chewed out by the FTC over the music CD copy protection issue, that suit finishes in February 2007 with a judgement against Sony.. EA decides to get into bed with another arm of Sony using similar methods of copy protection on games two months later? Microsoft gets into a world of trouble with limited activations on Bioshock, so EA decides to go down that road a few months later in what looks like a pissy attempt to extort money out of people.

[Budcot]

My boyfriend showed me http://www.2kgames.com/cultofrapture/revoketool.html about bioshock. Not good for massive crashes before you can revoke it but better than when it started.

[Dea]

This is L&P bc I cant find where I read it but EA is doing this bc they want to get out of PC games and strictly do platform games.    If PC game sales go down enough they will discontinue producing them.

[Solowren]

Dea: I don't buy that. EA is very proud of the fact that it's sold over 1 million copies of the Sims. The Sims 1 was the best-selling PC game of all time. The Sims 2 is well on its way, if it hasn't gotten there already.
I don't think for a minute that EA wants to get out of the PC market. It would completely cut off what I would say is a majority of their customer base.

[jolrei]

I don't think for a minute that EA wants to get out of the PC market. It would completely cut off what I would say is a majority of their customer base.

As for cutting off its customer base, securom is doing that already.  They may produce PC games, but I'm certainly not BUYING anything with securom.  If they want me to buy, they can remove securom.  An Arrr copy will not restrict the number of installs.

[ElfPuddle]

or mess with your computer...

[Zazazu]

This is L&P bc I cant find where I read it but EA is doing this bc they want to get out of PC games and strictly do platform games.    If PC game sales go down enough they will discontinue producing them.

This is bullhockey. If they don't want to produce PC games, they simply will stop producing PC games. There is no reason for them to purposely make themselves lose money in order to change their business plan. It's their business plan.

[Sagana]

I think it's because they want to limit resales - so you can't sell a used copy of the game. ...even though that's not legal (in the US)

[ShortyBoo]

Does anyone know if this is the version they're including with Apartment Life? Because I don't see any way that the limited installs would work at all with TS2 because of how badly programmed and buggy the game is in general. Plus, there's the fact that EAxis is always telling people with problems to reinstall the game, so this could get really bad. I can just see all the angry people complaining because they can't play their game anymore.

[Sigmund]

Does anyone know if this is the version they're including with Apartment Life? Because I don't see any way that the limited installs would work at all with TS2 because of how badly programmed and buggy the game is in general. Plus, there's the fact that EAxis is always telling people with problems to reinstall the game, so this could get really bad. I can just see all the angry people complaining because they can't play their game anymore.

You know, that is a really good point. EA might be forcing themselves into giving real tech support, god forbid! 

Seriously, this is such a terrible idea that I can't even fathom why anyone would consider it. If Securom hadn't already pushed me into the ARRR-ing territory, this "limited installations" idea most definitely would.

[notveryawesome]

That's why it's a good idea to wait for hacks (and hack updates), bug fixes, patches, etcetera, before even BUYING the game (unless you arrr, of course). I won't even consider a new EP or SP until said fixes are released. It's unfortunate, but it has to be done.

[jolrei]

So instead of allowing a situation where people MIGHT resell used games, they prefer the situation where people WILL avoid paying for the game at all.  This makes perfect sense, if what you are trying to sell is a useless copy protection product.  Makes no sense if you are trying to sell a game to savvy computer users.

It's ironic really.  In uni I was arrring all my software (back in the old XT, 286, 386 days).  Then I got a job and decided that since I was making money, I would go all honest and legal and I bought stuff.  Now, partly due to suck-u-ROM (not entirely, I admit) I am back to arrring everything.

Why pay when the free item is the superior product? = convincing argument.

[Sagana]

Somehow nothing about American business models makes any sense to me anymore I still think that's why though. I heard they put something about resales in the EULA for mass effect.

I don't want to pirate - it's more trouble and I can afford the game. I like having a cd, I don't want to deal with figuring out how to get what I need, finding a site, making it all work. I want to put in a CD and have it work (not that it ever did :p). I just play sometimes, for entertainment - anything that's more work takes something out of the game for me. I don't want to wait for new cracks when patches come out and deal with an extra layer of possible conflicts or problems. It's not that I'm loyal - it's that this is a GAME and it's supposed to be just idle entertainment and I'm lazy. I'd be an ideal EA customer - have been actually.

BUT - I'm not renting a damn game. I end up reformatting my computer. Something goes wrong or whatever (easy/lazy, remember). I get new computers. I want to sell something I bought and I own. Used. And I want it to work for the person I'm selling it to. If they put this on AL I will pirate it (not buy a game and get a no-CD, out and out pirate). I've come this far. I want the rest of the EPs. I'll just skip the stupid stuff packs and won't ever play spore or sims3 because of all this. But if they're going to cheat me and steal what is mine (games bought, stolen by taking away access to them), the hell with it. Chalk up another pirate.

[ShortyBoo]

My brother wants Spore and says he won't worry about SecuROM even though my DVD burner died from it. He pretty much hates the Sims and thinks all the issues are from bad programming on EAxis's part and not from SecuROM. But I'll let him play the game normally, while I pirate it and we'll see who ends up with problems.

[Solowren]

So he thinks the SecuROM problems are EA's fault, but isn't worried about it affecting Spore?

I think it would be in his best interest if you inform that him EA makes Spore.

[saraswati]

And then he needs a bit enlightened by the fact that people don't get bitten by the same issues when they have Securom-free versions.

I'm doing some reading up on how it manages to do just what it does.. it comes down to the fact that it seems to program part of itself to the Kernel. With this in mind, the issues it cause are either a case of bad programming or it's a deliberate, intentional effort to shut down programs it doesn't like. (or a combination of both, considering Sony created it)

[ShortyBoo]

So he thinks the SecuROM problems are EA's fault, but isn't worried about it affecting Spore?

I think it would be in his best interest if you inform that him EA makes Spore.

He doesn't blame EA totally, just the specific people who program TS2. I've tried to tell him he's wrong and that all EA games will have that program, but he doesn't believe me. And the funny thing is, he's the one who's really good with computers. He built my PC from scratch (I bought all the parts, but it was much cheaper than buying a new PC) as well as his and he's the one who installs any upgrades I get for my computer. He's always comparing TS2 to Guild Wars (he plays it all the time) and pointing out how the game had very little bugs when it came out and if a bug is found, it's fixed within a day. He sees the huge amount of bugs in TS2 and how long they take to fix them, and because of that, he thinks the Sims team is just really, really bad at programming. But I think since the games are completely different, you can't really compare them.

[Zazazu]

Well, the Sims team is really, really bad at programming. But as for not believing that EA will use SecuROM with future games, you might want to point him to all the online news articles saying it is so. There's optimism and there's willful oblivion.

[raattgift]

all EA games will have [securom]

and

the Sims team is just really, really bad at programming

and

the games [Guild Wars and TS2] are completely different

... are not mutually exclusive statements.  In fact, at least the last two of these are true.

You could always suggest he check out the wikipedia article on SecuROM.   That suggestion should not annoy his inner geek nearly as much as what is described in the article.