McQuown VS Electrionic Arts

[Quiksilver]

Link.

It may take a bit to load as it's been front paged on reddit all day. I gotta say this is the first time I heard of SecruRom causing physical damage to an optical drive and video card.

 

[zerocool84]

Securom sucks and all but how would it "damage" his videocard??? I'm glad to see this happening though. They don't disclose what Securom actually does and that it might make some programs not work and that it embeds itself in the kernal and cannot be removed.

 

[Bateluer]

I hope he wins and EA pays out big. They already lost millions to the people who pirated Spore solely because of SecuRom.

 

[Schadenfroh]

I would like to know how secuROM damaged his DVDROM and GPU.

 

[coloumb]

Frivolous Lawsuits

 

[Czar]

Originally posted by: coloumb
Frivolous Lawsuits

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_sale

 

[Ika]

I've heard of SecuRom fscking up optical drives, but not video cards...

 

[Maximilian]

Who cares if it broke anything or not securom is bad! Hope EA loses.

 

[Jeeebus]

Originally posted by: Maximilian
Who cares if it broke anything or not securom is bad! Hope EA loses.

that's a bit of an idiotic statement. a court of law does not exist to vindicate your personal vendettas. If you were sued for something and were in the right, do you think the judgment in your case should be based on random personal feelings?

I'm sure on one hand, you're someone that bitches about frivolous McDonald's coffee lawsuits, and then on the other, you're here hoping for a payment from EA regardless of fault.

 

[Maximilian]

Originally posted by: Jeeebus

Originally posted by: Maximilian
Who cares if it broke anything or not securom is bad! Hope EA loses.

that's a bit of an idiotic statement. a court of law does not exist to vindicate your personal vendettas. If you were sued for something and were in the right, do you think the judgment in your case should be based on random personal feelings?

I'm sure on one hand, you're someone that bitches about frivolous McDonald's coffee lawsuits, and then on the other, you're here hoping for a payment from EA regardless of fault.

Bad corporations should be punished, simple as that. I dont give a rats ass what they sue them for, as long as they get sued.

Go read the wiki on EA then come back here, see if you are still an EA fan after reading their "criticism" section.

 

[Jeeebus]

Originally posted by: Maximilian

Originally posted by: Jeeebus

Originally posted by: Maximilian
Who cares if it broke anything or not securom is bad! Hope EA loses.

that's a bit of an idiotic statement. a court of law does not exist to vindicate your personal vendettas. If you were sued for something and were in the right, do you think the judgment in your case should be based on random personal feelings?

I'm sure on one hand, you're someone that bitches about frivolous McDonald's coffee lawsuits, and then on the other, you're here hoping for a payment from EA regardless of fault.

Bad corporations should be punished, simple as that. I dont give a rats ass what they sue them for, as long as they get sued.

Go read the wiki on EA then come back here, see if you are still an EA fan after reading their "criticism" section.

I'm no EA fan. Nor am I a supporter of "bad" corporations as you might say. If someone breaks a law or commits a tort/breaches a contract, they should pay, and the courts are the proper forum.

Using the courts, however, to "punish" regardless of fault is asinine.

 

[PsharkJF]

Maybe I could see the DVD drive. But the GPU? That's one heck of a reach.

 

[Smilin]

I think he's got a good case regarding his DVD not functioning (No indication of hardware breaking) and some software being disabled like process explorer.

As a common spore user would not be able to tell between a broken DVD and a disabled DVD they could incur repair costs.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

I hope the class wins and that this puts an end to SecuROM and other insidious forms of copy protection. I also urge people to consider supporting Stardock--the company that wrote the "Gamers' Bill of Rights" and that releases games without copy protection (other than needing a key to play online or download updates) and that doesn't treat its paying customers like criminals.

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: PsharkJF
Maybe I could see the DVD drive. But the GPU? That's one heck of a reach.

There have been documented cases of DRM destroying optical drives, mostly around Starforce.

Given the control that Big Content is trying to exert over your PC, I can see how it might affect the video system as well. HDCP requires a compliant OS, monitor, and video card in order to play protected HD content. If the DRM is affecting this system, then I could see it potentially causing problems with devices in that system. Exactly how, I don't know, no have I read any confirmed documented cases of DRM damaging a video card permanently.

I still want to see EA lose the lawsuit for their blatant disregard of their customers, their shoddy games, and their lousy treatment of their own employees.

 

[TheRealStone]

I don't think it 'damaged' the card, and that the lawyer has mistaken hardware damage with software damage.

I've had SuckUROM mess with my graphics subsystems before. Killed any and all ability to recognize a widescreen display. However, undocumented IDE calls could cause problems with other hardware. I've bricked many NIC cards using undocumented calls in programming (I'm still a n00b at it.) Not smart to do. Had to reflash the firmware to get them operational again.

Maybe SecuROM hit the guy's video firmware, maybe it sccrambled the graphical subsystems. Nobody really knows just how SecuROM works in it's entirety, do they?

Maybe they should sue to get the source code forced public in order to determine any and all possible extent of damages this program can truly cause.

 

[KeithTalent]

Ridiculous lawsuit. No way they should win, but if they do the courts should hang their heads in shame. I'm no EA fan anymore (used to be, in the old NHL 90's days) but I'm even less of a fan of frivolous lawsuits that waste the time of the courts and taxpayer money.

KT

 

[shortylickens]

Originally posted by: Jeeebus

Originally posted by: Maximilian
Who cares if it broke anything or not securom is bad! Hope EA loses.

that's a bit of an idiotic statement. a court of law does not exist to vindicate your personal vendettas. If you were sued for something and were in the right, do you think the judgment in your case should be based on random personal feelings?

I'm sure on one hand, you're someone that bitches about frivolous McDonald's coffee lawsuits, and then on the other, you're here hoping for a payment from EA regardless of fault.

I have to agree. I hate EA but I dont want a pattern of companies getting sued just because people are babies or idiots.
EA can afford the best lawyers around, they probably wouldnt even lose.
But the little guy who's holding his business together by a thread would be ruined instantly.

Fuck that.

 

[mindcycle]

Doesn't seem like a frivolous lawsuit at all to me. SecuROM was installed on his system without disclosure of any sort and there isn't a way to uninstall it, or at least a way that your average computer user would know how to do. That in itself is grounds for a legitimate lawsuit. The fact it caused damage to his system (in whatever way it did) is only the icing on the cake.

 

[Maximilian]

Originally posted by: mindcycle
Doesn't seem like a frivolous lawsuit at all to me. SecuROM was installed on his system without disclosure of any sort and there isn't a way to uninstall it, or at least a way that your average computer user would know how to do. That in itself is grounds for a legitimate lawsuit. The fact it caused damage to his system (in whatever way it did) is only the icing on the cake.

:thumbsup:

I just left it alone when i saw the guide to removing securom, it was on my old OS install before i formatted to try the windows 7 beta. Just read it and thought... screw it, ill just chance it and hopefully it wont break anything or do anything now that the game it was attached to is gone.

 

[AlgaeEater]

The mentality; not the technology needs to be punished. Securom is a horrible technology, but it's just a tool of implementation by EA to use it, and thus I really feel just a "vast blunt instrument" they are using on consumers to force their "Pay to rent" games.

Even if Securom one day is defeated (legally or illegally), another will take its placed and be used. It's the mentality of using it in the first place that makes things the way they are.

Long story short, nothing can really come out of this lawsuit even if all the best case scenarios for the plantiff come about. EA will brush it off, and use another intrusive protection technology. They have made it clear they do not care about any opinion than their own regarding protection schemes.