Look out! The debate over Spore’s DRM is far from over. Here at Down in Front we have had many healthy debates over whether or not Digital Rights Management is a good thing for gamers and business alike. For those of you who happened to miss those debates, I suggest you check out the radio show Episode 43, and the intense debate in the forums. Putting my personal feelings on the subject aside about whether or not some form of copy protection is needed in the world and after reading the court document let me just say it's not looking good for EA. Let's take a look at some of the key points in the law suit...

Key points from the court document

2. 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 games. Although consumers are told that the game uses access control and copy protection technology, consumers are not told that 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 user re-formats their computer.

3. Spore game disk also possessed a second, hidden program which secretly installed to the command and control center of the computer(Ring 0, or the kernel), and surreptitiously operated, overseeing function and operation of the computer, preventing the computer from operating under certain circumstances and/or disrupting hardware operations.

12. The operating system of a computer utilizes different parts of levels of the computer, determined by the need of the software for access and control over different aspects of the hardware or software. These parts are commonly called Ring 0, 1, 2 and 3. Ring 0 is sometimes referred to as the Kernel. The kernel is usually used by the operating system to run the computer and it has access to everything on the computer. Ring 3, which is the normal zone used by Software has much lower permissions. SecuRom represents that is installs itself in Ring 3 (by having a part of itself called the UA7service.exe written to Ring 3), when in fact it installs its primarily operational code to Ring 0.

13. Writing itself to the Kernel of the computer allows SecuRom to have control over all other programs and processes on the computer, including equipment that computer users are legally permitted and entitled to possess.

15. No notification of the nature, function, and operation of the SecuRom program was provided to Spore purchasers. No notice of its secret installation was provided to persons who loaded and installed the Spore Computer game. No one was told that it was a separate program installing to the Kernel of the computer and that it could not be uninstalled.

Like I said before regardless of you opinion on DRM... it looks like EA was in the wrong here. You can't just install a secret program without someones consent nor give the ability to un-install that program. If your interesting in reading the entire court document you can download it here. It's definitely worth a read. We will keep you posted on any updates...