2K Games! FSCK YOU!

[Occulus]

I'm never buying anything from 2K Games again. Never.

:rant:

I recently bought Bioshock (and I'm almost through it! Tonight we may dine on ham and jammies!); my roommate just today bought the Shivering Isles expansion pack for Oblivion. Both games have the 2K Games logo on the box; they are the developer of Bioshock and are also involved with this expansion of Oblivion.

Bioshock is honestly really awesome; it's a bit like a kick in the nuts that lasts. Sadly, it has an undisclosed piece of malware on the DVD called SecuRom. The malware is present to prevent people from making illegal copies of the game. I use the term "malware" for a reason. Keep reading...

"Great," some of you may be thinking, "wonderful. They're taking a proactive step to protect their intellectual property rights." The problem is, while that may be their goal, the presence of SecuRom is undisclosed, both on the box and in the End User License Agreement (EULA). It is never mentioned, and the user gets no option to cancel the install because they've discovered the game uses SecuRom prior to installing it.

As if that were not bad enough, the version of SecuRom they are using takes a hardware fingerprint and sends it off... somewhere, in order to verify the install is genuine, and then downloads a file needed to complete the installation from a 2K server. On top of all this, SecuRom installs itself into the Windows registry- silently- and does not remove itself when BioShock is removed.

The cherry on the sundae? You're only allowed five installs of the game. No, not on five separate computers.

Five installs. Period.

You can ask them nicely for more than that- they themselves raised it due to user complaints... from an original two installs- but there's no guarantee at all they'll give you more, even though they claim to happily do so. I think it was a PC Gamer reviewer that castigated 2K in his review because he couldn't test it on all the hardware he needed to- which involves installing the game many, many times on many, many different PC configurations.

Some users are unable to play the game at all because of SecuRom even weeks after purchase, and another user on 2K's own forums tells of how he was trying to make a drive image to backup his hard disk, and the mere presence of SecuRom on the drive was enough to bring an end to the attempt. SecuRom also doesn't play well with virus scanners (they see it as a system intrusion... hmmm.....) and a utility called Process Explorer, which apparently can be used to find and shut down hidden system processes.

Several users on the 2K forums have filed complaints with the FTC. I'm considering just that myself.

Yesterday, my roommate went out and bought an expansion for Oblivion called "Shivering Isles". Once again, a 2K game, but the original Oblivion DVD doesn't include SecuRom and, somehow, managed to become one of the best PC role playing games ever. "Wonderful," we thought, "since Oblivion has no form of copy protection at all, it stands to reason that expansion game won't, either."

Wrong. Shivering Isles uses.... wait for it.... SecuRom. And get this: it seems to use a version that either doesn't work with Bioshock's version of SecuRom, or is in fact broken outright out of the box. And guess what? SecuRom isn't disclosed on the exterior of this expansion, and- surprise!- causes the expansion pack he bought to be uninstallable. Users on the forums provide several "fixes" which are mildly to hideously technical for the average PC users (things like making a .iso from a DVD and mounting it on a virtual drive aren't things average users often learn how to do). 2K quite literally stole my roommate's cash, and as he is on a fixed income he is not amused. I'm helping him to try and get it to even install, but the sad irony here is that to do so I'm probably going to have to technically break the law... to use a legitimately purchased product.

An even sadder irony is, those who completely broke the law and downloaded cracked pirate copies of both Bioshock and the Oblivion expansion aren't having any of these issues because cracked copies, by definition, strip the copy protections from the install process. Had we "stolen" the Oblivion expansion, my roommate wouldn't be out $20. Triple that for me if I had downloaded Bioshock instead of paying for it with my hard-earned cash- even though I myself had no problems with that game.

I don't think I'll be buying any games from 2K ever again. This is twice now that I've seen them install undisclosed third-party software that is known to cause problems, they are not providing a remove tool, SecuRom is uncooperative on the subject of removing their software (i.e., once it's there, it's there)...

We need to make this shit illegal. the only people being hurt are the legitimate, paying customers. When it takes about a week for a cracked copy to appear, one wonders if the prices would be lower if they didn't pay for the SecuRom license in the first place. I know if my roommate had broken the law instead of being a paying customer, he'd have a working copy instead of a $20 coaster.

:rant:

[enki23]

1. wait... i was under the impression that most *all* windows software did that

referring to the registry additions that aren't removed upon uninstall. that isn't particularly new or unusual, is it? i wouldn't think that would qualify as "malware" without further information. in any case, it's not as cumbersome as "steam" for chrissakes.

[RoyGBiv]

2. The registry entry is the least of it ...

Yes, everything does that, but this isn't just checking a registry entry. It's a .dll that executes as a system process. SecuRom has been in use for a good amount of time now. It's a Sony product, which has a history of unethical and potentially damaging copy protection schemes. (Rootkit anyone?) It's been through, I think, seven major revisions now, and if you have one version of it from the install of a previous application that uses it and try to install something with another version, they may not be compatible. Or, if you've even run process explorer, the game you've already installed may no longer work at all.

Previous versions, not including one that used an illegal method of copy protection, were less odious. Several popular games used it without anyone who purchased the games legally ever noticing. (Command and Conquer, Sim City 3000, Diablo 2 are examples.) The current version of SecuRom is as the OP described and is causing all kinds of havoc.

And, as the OP described, people are being forced into technically criminal actions to play legally purchased games.

[Occulus]

3. Exactly, and thank you

I have a very serious problem with .dll files that run as executables. I can't look at a .dll file; I can't decompile it with the tools I have (although I daresay there are tools out there that can do just that, the DMCA makes even that illegal). I have both Diablo 2 and SimCity3000; neither of them gave me any problems at all, and I actually am able to copy each to my heart's content, thus saving my original copy from scratches, gouges, and whatnot.

But THIS.... this is beneath contempt. 2K ***does not*** disclose the use of the "new" version of SecuRom at all. Not on the box, not in the EULA, and not at install time. Furthermore, SecuRom does not uninstall when the game(s) that depend(s) on it is/are removed.

The Bioshock demo installs SecuRom, and does not uninstall it when the demo is uninstalled. The company that produces SecuRom does not provide uninstall instructions. This definitely does translate into suspicion of nefarious conduct to any reasonable person.

Allow me to say it again: 2K games stole $20 from my roommate. They fraudulently advertised, marketed, and sold a nonfunctional product which was made nonfunctional by their own "protections". They are unwilling to provide an uninstall tool for SecuRom, and the company that makes SecuRom is unwilling to provide removal instructions.

This should be in fact even more illegal than copyright infringement, because it places their own legitimate, paying customers into the position of being forced to break the DMCA as written in order to use a product they themselves have already "purchased a license for". Suppose I had to hack 2K's Bioshock online activation system because this (completely undisclosed) version of SecuRom doesn't work with my system, t6hey caught me at it, and they decided to prosecute. Suddenly, I would be facing a judgment of potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars just because I tried to use the product I bought.

I'm beginning to think we need to completely reconsider the validity of the EULA as a contract. Quite clearly, as I outlined in my posts above, the EULA as it is currently understood as a legal document is completely insufficient to today's needs and business practices from both a corporate and a consumer standpoint.

Imagine buying a car that is illegal to drive on unapproved streets, or an electronic device that is illegal to plug into the wall. They're illgal because, when they were sold, they were completely inoperative- and you were forced to break the law to get them to work, after you paid the money for them.

It's the closest analogy I can draw.

[Occulus]

4. Nearly all of them do

but I'm not talking about the purchased product; no- I'm talking about the installation of a third-party utility embedded within the purchased product, completely and at all points undisclosed, which has been known to cause problems elsewhere on a PC, being placed without my consent.

SecuRom as it is today causes problems. Period. It causes problems with products both directly and indirectly associated with it. Further, it does not achieve its own stated objective of reducing software piracy, is not removed when the software it is installed to protect is removed, and in fact cannot be removed by ordinary, "normal" means.

SecuRom is malware, plain and simple, if for no other reason than that I am never once offered, in the cases of both Bioshock and Shivering Isles, the chance to measure SecuRom's presence against my desire to remain free of it. I already know SecuRom doesn't like people asking how to uinstall its product, and I already know how difficult is truly is to completely get rid of short of a full system drive format. My point is, I wanted to avoid it, and I now own two- count them, TWO- products which I very much wanted which contain SecuRom- but which I wasn't ever given the choice between my desire for the product itself and my desire for my system to remain free of the SecuRom malware because the said malware went completely undisclosed.

This isn't about it being a registry entry, though, or about it taking or not taking a hardware fingerprint, or for any other reason then that it was a product which I wanted to completely avoid at this point and which went undisclosed in any and all ways. At the very best, this is an extremely unethical business practice; at the worst, the company that makes SecuRom, and the companies which use it, are Up To No Good concerning violations of the DMCA.

In either case, I'll never again buy a game from a company that uses SecuRom. If I have to, I'll, ah, obtain a copy without that malware attached to it. :)

I have very good, well-documented reasons for being angry with this company and for wanting to completely avoid its product at any and all costs. This goes well above and beyond a simple gripe; one of the top threads on the 2K Games Bioshock forums relates to possible illegalities in their use of SecuRom. People are filing complaints, and after this Shivering Isles mess, I'm leaning toward doing the same.

As I said before, this needs to be illegal if it isn't already. When you pay good money, you deserve the billed product, not a fancy coaster with a manual and a map. We need to put an end to copy protection of CDs and DVDs as we know it, and figure out another way. What we have doesn't work, and as I have personally learned, hurts the innocent instead of the guilty.

If Bioshock had not worked on my system (it did, and I love the game), I would be out about $60. Added to the $20 Shivering Isles coaster my roommate bought, you get $80 that 2K games could/might/would have quite literally stolen from us. Had we each broken the law and downloaded the two respective titles, we would have had no fear but for viruses. At least they would have worked.

To drone on, I'm getting very tired of copyright law as it applies to digital media. Clearly, the DMCA does not- and indeed, law cannot- anticipate the development of new technology and new forms of media transmission. On top of that, the DMCA is, as I have described, woefully inadequate when it comes to consumer rights in areas in which it applies. I have the implicit right to expect a functional product when I pay cash money for material goods when those goods are advertised as a functional product. I can expect it will work as advertised, that is will be at the least functional at the point of purchase, and that I may return it within a reasonable length of time if it proves to be neither upon attempted use.

The DMCA ignores all those things and in fact makes it a criminal act for me to repair the product in such a way that the product will in fact function. That needs to end, but I have no idea how that might come to pass.

[semillama]

5. Definitely file a complaint

It's the least you can do. Also advise them you're taking your purchasing dollar elsewhere.

(it's things like this that make feel better about being just a console gamer...)