Spore-ing Piracy

Spore™ by Electronic Arts (EA), was one of the most anticipated games of the year 2008. Even two years before its release, it has been given 5 star (out of 5) ratings on gaming websites.

Two years later, the game is getting 1 star ratings from users on Amazon.com and eBay for buying the product. Why you ask? This is because of their malicious anti-piracy DRM (Digital Rights Management) software which is a term for restrictions placed on digital content to prevent users from making copies (Wikipedia.org).

(Source: Amazon.com)

Spore is a real-time strategy / life simulation game (something like TheSims) where you take control of a particular Cell in the beginning and evolve stage by stage to Creature, Tribal, Civilization and finally Space (Wikipedia.org).

See More Spore Screenshot at IGN.com

In an attempt to ‘reduce piracy’, EA decided to restrict how many times the game can be installed.

Upon purchasing the game, users are given an activation code. This code is required to activate the game over the internet during installation, and it is limited to a total of 3 activations per code. In a scenario given by a user on Amazon.com: “If you're an XP user, you'll probably install the game. Then you'll upgrade to Vista. That'll be another install. Two down one to go.”

Another user said that “this basically means that you are actually RENTING the game, instead of owning it”.

Additional installations would require you to buy a new copy or call EA for a new activation code. The company also restricted how many people could play each copy.

This has made Spore one of the most pirated games ever. According to Ernesto (2008) from TorrentFreak, Spore has already been downloaded more than 500,000 over BitTorrent sites, and this number is increasing rapidly. Spore is in the Top 100 most downloaded list on ThePirateBay.org.

This will be hard to stop, as Dawson (2007) says, copyright holders may request hosts to cease distributing them, but it won’t stop piracy because it will still circulate via peer-to-peer file sharing.

Instead of hitting lawsuits to pirates for piracy of their products, EA is instead being hit with a lawsuit for their anti-piracy software: ‘Spore ‘spying’ evolves into lawsuit - Adelaidenew.com.au. How ironic.

Hate videos are also posted on YouTube on this issue.

It would be hard to rid this world of piracy, especially on the internet, where content is controlled by its user. Even EA’s attempts to reduce piracy backfired on them.

The fact that I installed this game from my generous cousin’s copy never affected me that much, but now I feel that this has made it very unfair to him. But not to take anything away from Electronic Arts, I would rate the game play a 5 out of 5 because it is absolutely unique, and I love the concept of colonizing the universe.

Related articles (not referred):
EA Downplays Spore's DRM Triggered Piracy Record - TorrentFreak.com
----------
References

Dawson, M 2007, Little Players, Big Shows: Format, Narration, and Style on Television's New Smaller Screens, Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, Sage Publications, Vol.13(3), pp. 231-250.

Ernesto, 2008, Spore: Most Pirated Game Ever Thanks to DRM, TorrentFreak, viewed 10 November 2008, <http://torrentfreak.com/spore-most-pirated-game-ever-thanks-to-drm-080913>.

Digital rights management, Wikipedia.org, viewed 10 November 2008, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Rights_Management>.

Ramadge, A 2008, ‘Spore anti-piracy measures spawn backlash’, News.com.au, viewed 10 November 2008, <http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,,24354314-5014239,00.html>.

Spore™, Customer Reviews, Amazon.com, viewed 10 November 2008, <http://www.amazon.com/Spore-Mac/dp/B000FKBCX4/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1221532773&sr=8-1>.

Spore (2008 video game), Wikipedia.org, viewed 10 November 2008, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spore_(2008_video_game)>.