SecuROM
Encyclopedia
SecuROM is a CD
/DVD
copy protection
and digital rights management
product
developed by Sony DADC
. SecuROM aims to resist home media duplication devices, professional duplicators, and attempts at reverse engineering
software. It is most often used for commercial computer games
running under the Microsoft Windows
platform. The method of disc protection in current versions is Data Position Measurement
; this may or may not be used in conjunction with online DRM components.
Many opponents, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation
, believe SecuROM, like many DRM applications, is used to restrict one's fair-use
rights. The use of SecuROM has generated controversy because it is not uninstalled upon removal of the game. In 2008, a class-action lawsuit was filed against Electronic Arts
for its use of SecuROM in the video game Spore.
To sum up, SecuROM limits the number of PCs activated at the same time from the same key, but does not prevent the user from reselling the product, if the product is fully revoked (but subject to EULA, etc.). Moreover, on a case by case basis, the limit of the activations may be increased if the user has proved he reached the limit after several hardware triggered re-activations on the same PC.
of installing a rootkit
. An official announcement was made denying the use of any type of rootkit. Furthermore, no evidence of rootkits or Ring 0 access have been found.
The game required consumers to activate the game online and originally set a maximum of two activations before they would have to call to get more activations. This was raised to five activations because an incorrect phone number had been printed on the manual and call centers were only in the United States. Users also found that the game had to be activated for each user on the same machine.
In 2008, 2K Games removed the activation limit, although users are still required to activate it online.
for the PC would be using SecuROM 7.x requiring a reactivation of the software every 10 days. Due to complaints, EA removed the 10-day activation while keeping SecuROM tied to the installation. SecuROM's product activation
facility was still used to impose a limit of three times that a customer is allowed to activate the copy of Mass Effect once purchased. The game becomes unplayable "as is" after the activations are used up, until EA's customer support is contacted to reset the activation limit. Unlike BioShock
, uninstalling the game does not refund a previously used activation. More recent versions of Mass Effect on budget prices (those available on EA classics and Steam) have SecuROM omitted.
, which uses SecuROM. Spore has seen relatively substantial rates of unauthorized distribution among peer-to-peer groups, and with a reported 1.7 million downloads over BitTorrent networks, it was the most-pirated game of 2008; journalists note that this was a reaction from users unhappy with the copy protection. However, TorrentFreak's "Top 10" list shows that the presence of intrusive DRM appears not to increase piracy of a game. Many of the games on the list use basic SafeDisc
copy protection with no install limits, no online activation, and no major reports of protection-related issues. Furthermore, several popular games which do use more intrusive DRM such as BioShock, Crysis Warhead
and Mass Effect are absent from the list, indicating that intrusive DRM is not the main reason why some games are pirated more heavily than others.
EA requires the player to authenticate the game online upon installation. This system was announced after the originally planned system met some opposition from the public, as it would have required authentication every 10 days. The product key of an individual copy of the game would only be authenticated on up to three computers. In response to customer complaints, this limit was raised to five computers, however only one online user can be created per copy, which is required to access user-generated content.
As a result of its inclusion with Spore, a class-action lawsuit was filed by Maryland
resident Melissa Thomas within U.S. District Court against Electronic Arts
. The lawsuit has been followed up by several others.
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
/DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
copy protection
Copy protection
Copy protection, also known as content protection, copy obstruction, copy prevention and copy restriction, refer to techniques used for preventing the reproduction of software, films, music, and other media, usually for copyright reasons.- Terminology :Media corporations have always used the term...
and digital rights management
Digital rights management
Digital rights management is a class of access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals with the intent to limit the use of digital content and devices after sale. DRM is any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that...
product
Product (business)
In general, the product is defined as a "thing produced by labor or effort" or the "result of an act or a process", and stems from the verb produce, from the Latin prōdūce ' lead or bring forth'. Since 1575, the word "product" has referred to anything produced...
developed by Sony DADC
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
. SecuROM aims to resist home media duplication devices, professional duplicators, and attempts at reverse engineering
Reverse engineering
Reverse engineering is the process of discovering the technological principles of a device, object, or system through analysis of its structure, function, and operation...
software. It is most often used for commercial computer games
Computer Games
"Computer Games" is a single by New Zealand group, Mi-Sex released in 1979 in Australia and New Zealand and in 1981 throughout Europe. It was the single that launched the band, and was hugely popular, particularly in Australia and New Zealand...
running under the Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
platform. The method of disc protection in current versions is Data Position Measurement
Data Position Measurement
Data Position Measurement is a copy protection mechanism that operates by measuring the physical location of data on an optical disc. Stamped CDs are perfect clones and always have the data at the expected location, while a burned copy would exhibit physical differences. DPM detects these...
; this may or may not be used in conjunction with online DRM components.
Many opponents, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation
Electronic Frontier Foundation
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is an international non-profit digital rights advocacy and legal organization based in the United States...
, believe SecuROM, like many DRM applications, is used to restrict one's fair-use
Fair use
Fair use is a limitation and exception to the exclusive right granted by copyright law to the author of a creative work. In United States copyright law, fair use is a doctrine that permits limited use of copyrighted material without acquiring permission from the rights holders...
rights. The use of SecuROM has generated controversy because it is not uninstalled upon removal of the game. In 2008, a class-action lawsuit was filed against Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...
for its use of SecuROM in the video game Spore.
Software
SecuROM 7.x was the first version to come with SecuROM Removal Tool, which is intended to help users remove it after the software with which it was installed has been removed. Most titles now also came with a revoke tool to de-activate the license (revoking all licenses would restore the original activation limit). As with Windows activation, a hardware change may trigger another activation, as the system perceives it as another computer. Forgetting to revoke before formatting the computer may not lead to another activation quota being consumed, subject to the Product Activation servers successfully detecting it is a re-installation on the same set of hardware.To sum up, SecuROM limits the number of PCs activated at the same time from the same key, but does not prevent the user from reselling the product, if the product is fully revoked (but subject to EULA, etc.). Moreover, on a case by case basis, the limit of the activations may be increased if the user has proved he reached the limit after several hardware triggered re-activations on the same PC.
Known problems
- It may not detect your original game disc in the drive. This can occur on virtually any configuration and reinserting the disc or rebooting usually resolves the problem.
- Under Windows VistaWindows VistaWindows Vista is an operating system released in several variations developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs, and media center PCs...
, SecuROM will prevent the game from running if explicit congestion notificationExplicit Congestion NotificationExplicit Congestion Notification is an extension to the Internet Protocol and to the Transmission Control Protocol and is defined in RFC 3168 . ECN allows end-to-end notification of network congestion without dropping packets. ECN is an optional feature that is only used when both endpoints...
is enabled in Vista's networking configuration.
- Disk drive emulators and some debugging software will also cause the launch of the game to fail and a security module error to be generated, because these are typically used to bypass copy protection. Disabling such software usually fixes the issue, but in some cases uninstallation is required.
- It conflicts with some background software aside from emulators, the best-known being a conflict with SysInternal's Process ExplorerProcess ExplorerProcess Explorer is a freeware computer program for Microsoft Windows created by Sysinternals, which has been acquired by Microsoft Corporation....
prior to version 11 was used before an attempt to run the protected software. That problem was caused by a driver that was kept in memory after Process Explorer was closed. This is easily fixed by simply ensuring Process Explorer isn't running in the background when the game is launched or updating.
- It is known to conflict with certain brands of optical drives. The reasons for this are not mentioned on the SecuROM site, but it's a hardware-level incompatibility. There are workarounds available.
BioShock
Consumers have accused BioShockBioshock
BioShock is a first-person shooter video game developed by 2K Boston and designed by Ken Levine. It was released for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 on August 21, 2007 in North America, and three days later in Europe and Australia. It became available on Steam on August 21, 2007...
of installing a rootkit
Rootkit
A rootkit is software that enables continued privileged access to a computer while actively hiding its presence from administrators by subverting standard operating system functionality or other applications...
. An official announcement was made denying the use of any type of rootkit. Furthermore, no evidence of rootkits or Ring 0 access have been found.
The game required consumers to activate the game online and originally set a maximum of two activations before they would have to call to get more activations. This was raised to five activations because an incorrect phone number had been printed on the manual and call centers were only in the United States. Users also found that the game had to be activated for each user on the same machine.
In 2008, 2K Games removed the activation limit, although users are still required to activate it online.
Mass Effect
In May 2008, EA announced that Mass EffectMass Effect
Mass Effect is an action role-playing game developed by BioWare for the Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows by Demiurge Studios. The Xbox 360 version was released worldwide in November 2007 published by Microsoft Game Studios...
for the PC would be using SecuROM 7.x requiring a reactivation of the software every 10 days. Due to complaints, EA removed the 10-day activation while keeping SecuROM tied to the installation. SecuROM's product activation
Product activation
Product activation is a license validation procedure required by some proprietary computer software programs. In one form, product activation refers to a method invented by Ric Richardson and patented by Uniloc where a software application hashes hardware serial numbers and an ID number specific...
facility was still used to impose a limit of three times that a customer is allowed to activate the copy of Mass Effect once purchased. The game becomes unplayable "as is" after the activations are used up, until EA's customer support is contacted to reset the activation limit. Unlike BioShock
Bioshock
BioShock is a first-person shooter video game developed by 2K Boston and designed by Ken Levine. It was released for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 on August 21, 2007 in North America, and three days later in Europe and Australia. It became available on Steam on August 21, 2007...
, uninstalling the game does not refund a previously used activation. More recent versions of Mass Effect on budget prices (those available on EA classics and Steam) have SecuROM omitted.
Spore
On September 7, 2008, EA released SporeSpore (2008 video game)
Spore is a multi-genre single-player god game developed by Maxis and designed by Will Wright. The game was released for the Microsoft Windows and Macintosh operating systems in September 2008 as Spore...
, which uses SecuROM. Spore has seen relatively substantial rates of unauthorized distribution among peer-to-peer groups, and with a reported 1.7 million downloads over BitTorrent networks, it was the most-pirated game of 2008; journalists note that this was a reaction from users unhappy with the copy protection. However, TorrentFreak's "Top 10" list shows that the presence of intrusive DRM appears not to increase piracy of a game. Many of the games on the list use basic SafeDisc
SafeDisc
SafeDisc is a CD/DVD copy protection and digital rights management program for Windows applications and games. Created by Macrovision Corporation, it aims to prevent the copying of discs for casual or commercial use....
copy protection with no install limits, no online activation, and no major reports of protection-related issues. Furthermore, several popular games which do use more intrusive DRM such as BioShock, Crysis Warhead
Crysis Warhead
Crysis Warhead is a science fiction first-person shooter computer game developed by the studio Crytek Budapest, Hungary, and published by Electronic Arts. Crysis Warhead is a stand-alone expansion game and does not require Crysis installed to play...
and Mass Effect are absent from the list, indicating that intrusive DRM is not the main reason why some games are pirated more heavily than others.
EA requires the player to authenticate the game online upon installation. This system was announced after the originally planned system met some opposition from the public, as it would have required authentication every 10 days. The product key of an individual copy of the game would only be authenticated on up to three computers. In response to customer complaints, this limit was raised to five computers, however only one online user can be created per copy, which is required to access user-generated content.
As a result of its inclusion with Spore, a class-action lawsuit was filed by Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
resident Melissa Thomas within U.S. District Court against Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...
. The lawsuit has been followed up by several others.
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3
Red Alert 3 included SecuRom until February 19, 2009 when it was removed from the Steam version. Non Steam editions still include SecuRom.Dragon Age 2
In March 2011, reports began emerging that EA's Dragon Age 2 was being distributed with SecuROM despite assertions from EA that it would not be. On March 12, 2011, a BioWare representative posted a message on the official Dragon Age 2 boards that the game does not use SecuROM, but instead "a release control product which is made by the same team, but is a completely different product". This later turned out to be Sony Release Control. However, this identification has been challenged by Reclaim Your Game, the consumer advocacy group, based on their analysis of the files in question.See also
- Digital rights managementDigital rights managementDigital rights management is a class of access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals with the intent to limit the use of digital content and devices after sale. DRM is any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that...
- Extended Copy ProtectionExtended Copy ProtectionExtended Copy Protection is a software package developed by the British company First 4 Internet, and sold as a copy protection or digital rights management scheme for Compact Discs...
- SafeDiscSafeDiscSafeDisc is a CD/DVD copy protection and digital rights management program for Windows applications and games. Created by Macrovision Corporation, it aims to prevent the copying of discs for casual or commercial use....
- Sony BMG CD copy prevention scandal
- CD-CopsCD-CopsCD-Cops is the first CD-ROM protection that uses the geometry of the CD-ROM media rather than a hidden "mark". It was invented in 1996 by Danish Link Data Security, known for its Cops Copylock key-diskette security used in the 1990s by Lotus 1-2-3.-Overview:...
- StarForceStarForceStarForce is a software copy protection mechanism developed by Protection Technology, which claims that products protected with StarForce are difficult to reverse engineer.- Product families :Currently known official versions of StarForce include:...
- TAGESTAGESTagès is a software copy protection system, jointly developed, at first, by MPO and the Thales Group starting in 1999...