Spore copy protection causes furore

The excellent new game from EA has run into controversy over the use of a copy protection device called SecuROM, which I blogged about on a previous occasion.

Basically PC buyers are only being allowed to install Spore three times.

So what, you might ask? Well for one thing when you normally buy a software title, you buy it in perpetuity, so you can install it as many times as you want.

You can also sell it second hand if you so wish. Clearly this issue has implications for sales so software manufacturers might want to find ways of halting it (and so, I would say, rob their customers of legitimately selling on their property).

But the issue of installations is also important - many people install and uninstall games frequently to free up hard drive space, just keeping the save games.

Why should a software company prevent this perfectly legitimate practice - I often wipe something I haven't played in a while, and hang on to the saves, only to fancy another bash later and put it back on again.

Perhaps these software restrictions are a step too far, and taking the capitalist ideal of trying to squeeze every last penny out of something to the point where they are annoying their own customers.

As to if this stops piracy - well, presumably hacked copies (which apparently were available before Spore was even released) get round this three installation rule anyway, rendering it somewhat pointless.