SecuROM
| Developer(s) | Sony DADC |
|---|---|
| Type | Optical disc copy protection, Digital rights management |
| Website | www |
SecuROM is a CD/DVD copy protection and digital rights management (DRM) product developed by Sony DADC. Its purpose is to resist home media duplication devices, professional duplicators, and reverse engineering of software, primarily 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.
Opponents, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, believe that fair-use rights are restricted by DRM applications such as SecuROM. SecuROM has generated controversy because it is not uninstalled upon removal of the game. A 2008 class-action lawsuit was filed against Electronic Arts for its use of SecuROM in the video game Spore.
SecuROM limits the number of PCs activated at the same time from the same key. SecuROM 7.x was the first version to include the SecuROM Removal Tool, which is intended to help users remove SecuROM after the software with which it was installed has been removed. Most titles now also include a revoke tool to deactivate the license; revoking all licenses would restore the original activation limit. As with Windows activation, a hardware change may appear as a change of computer, and force another activation of the software. Reformatting the computer may not consume an activation, if the Product Activation servers successfully detect it as a re-installation on the same set of hardware. The activation limit may be increased, on a case-by-case basis, if the user is shown to have reached this limit due to several hardware-triggered re-activations on the same PC.
Shortly after the release of Windows 10, Microsoft announced that games with SecuROM DRM will not run on its new operating system. Citing security concerns over the software due to the way in which it becomes "deeply embedded" in the system, Microsoft said "That’s where Windows 10 says, 'Sorry'." Supporting SecuROM could have been a possible loophole for computer viruses to exploit."
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