While Reclaim Your Game, which acts as a gamer’s consumers’ rights advocacy group campaigning against oppressive DRM had praised EA for excluding SecuROM from Dragon Age: Origins, recent testing of the sequel compelled the site to give it an “Unacceptable” rating due to the inclusion of DRM and, most importantly, EA’s failure to disclose it anywhere to consumers.

In a recent email sent to their subscribers, representatives from RYG wrote:

“We have CONFIRMED from testing that it DOES contain SecuROM, and that it DOES leave files behind. We can also confirm that nowhere on the package, in the EULA or on the Website for the game is thee ANY mention of the inclusion of SecuROM. EA had been ordered by the courts to disclose the use of SecuROM on any game that uses it. And it is contradictory of what Bioware has been saying for the last 3 weeks.”

In their report, RYG cites multiple areas of concern, including:

• Inconsistent information about DRM
• No EULA for SecuROM
• SecuROM files hidden from user
• SecuROM files not removed after online activation
• DRM removal tool not included; SecuROM remains even after user uninstalls game

And these are just some of the concerns noted in their report, which you can read in full as a pdf, here, or read their more detailed analysis (with screenshots), here.

Even though EA and Bioware had explicitly stated before the fact that SecuROM would not be included in the non-steam versions of Dragon Age II, and simply be there to verify the game wasn’t played ahead of release day (and would not install anything on your computer), RYG’s tests show otherwise.

EA was sued in the past (and lost) for the way it used SecuROM in its games, with Spore mean the most notorious, although later versions of The Sims 2 were also affected.  For those of you unfamiliar, SecuROM is a type of DRM (digital rights management) created by Sony – the same group that was sued before for DRM with music CDs – that installs itself onto your computer, without your knowledge, sends information to Sony (what information is never made clear), and worse, is not uninstalled when you uninstall the product with which it came.  SecuROM can only be installed with what basically amounts to a specifically designed virus removal tool, although many recommend reformatting your harddrive as the only true way to remove the spyware from your computer.  Moreso, SecuROM has been known to deactivate legitimate hardware and software on your computer, causing numerous problems, all without your consent, and all in a supposedly mad drive to prevent piracy by punishing paying gamers.
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