Spore Forums Continue DRM Controversy

The question of DRM and anti-piracy measures have once again overshadowed Electronic Arts’ Spore, as forum users on the game’s official website were warned that they may be forced to buy a new copy of the game if they persisted in their complaints. In answer to a post complaining that threads discussing SecuROM and DRM (digital rights management) were being locked and deleted, an unnamed moderator added the following message to the post: “SecuROM as [sic] been discussed and discussed so much and it causes arguments in threads. If you want to talk about DRM SecuROM then please use another fansite forum. If there is any change you will be able to read it on the official Spore site. Please do not continue to post theses thread or you account may be at risk of banning which in some cases would mean you would need to buy a new copy to play Spore.” Before the thread was locked, Maxis producer “MaxisLucky” clarified the comments by confirming that discussing DRM does not break the forum’s rules. Although a critical and commercial success, Spore has seen a number of complaints from users over the SecuROM digital rights management (DRM) measures, which limit users to only three activations and a single account name per game. In light of the complaints, Electronic Arts subsequently made provisions for up to five screen names to be used for each online account. The company also promised that a patch would be released in the future to allow owners of the game to “de-authorize” computers on which it was installed.