Many people already know my stance on restrictive DRM, and copy protection systems such as SecuROM and StarForce. Considering some of the difficulties I have had with SecuROM and StarForce in the past, I finally decided to remove games using that software from my game collection. It's taken me three days to check the majority of games in my collection, and separate those I deem problematic from those I deem acceptable.

Quite a number of titles are now languishing in a crate shoved in a cupboard, never to see the light of day again. It saddens me that I had to do it, but I can no longer support games, developers or publishers using this kind of malware. Most people know about the issues regarding StarForce, but I've also had difficulties with SecuROM. I atrribute two DVD drive failures and interruption of data backups using Nero to interference from both SecuROM and StarForce. I now face the prospect of reformatting my hard drive and installing the OS and all my applications from scratch, just to ensure all traces of these copy protection systems are removed.

After reading about it from all around the net, I checked my system registry and found null entries, and went into my user settings to find a hidden directory buried there with files named using illegal characters making them impossible to simply delete, and requiring a third party application to remove them. SecuROM is not uninstalled when a game is uninstalled - it remains on your PC to potentially interfere with CD/DVD burning software and drives. It is also rumoured to interfere with certain kinds of virtual drive, some SCSI devices and potentially some RAID setups.

I find this practice unacceptable, and in my view SecuROM is more like a virus due to the way it installs without your knowledge and buries itself deep in your system, resisting attempts to remove it. I have two firewalls (hardware and software), two anti-virus applications and a spyware/adware removal tool on my system because I do not wanted it infected by malicious software. Now I realise I have unwittingly been installing such malicious software along with the games I purchased, and it sickens me. Of course, it was my own fault for not educating myself more thoroughly about these things in the past, but foolishly I placed my trust in the developers and wanted to support them to combat piracy.

Needless to say, I will be a lot more vigilant and wary in the future. Even some game demos now come with SecuROM attached, so I will have to avoid those as well. Basically I will have to wait until others post about the copy protections used on certain games before making future purchasing decisions, because I will not risk compromising the integrity of my PC again.

This is the list of games I have put aside:

StarForce protected games

Brothers In Arms: Earned In Blood
Codename: Panzers: Phase One
Cossacks II: Napoleonic Wars
Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy
Rainbow Six: Lockdown
Sniper Elite
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory

SecuROM 7.xx protected games

Bioshock
Boiling Point: Road To Hell
Call Of Juarez
Company Of Heroes (Gold)
Crysis
Dark Messiah Of Might & Magic
F.E.A.R.
Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter
Hitman: Blood Money (Triple Pack)
Lego Star Wars
Lego Star Wars 2
Neverwinter Nights 2
Prey
Project Snowblind
Rogue Trooper
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow Of Chernobyl
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn Of War (Gold - includes both expansions)

Anyway, some of those games listed above number among my favourite titles, and many may ask why I would deny myself the enjoyment of playing them. The answer is simply that I cannot risk these copy protection systems interfering further with my PC, and that takes precedence over all other considerations. It does not matter how sugar-coated the pill, it is still a bitter pill to swallow.

Similarly, I will purchase no other titles using these copy protection systems in future, and especially will not purchase games that come with activation limits and other restrictive DRM measures. It is simply not worth the risk.