Copy protection

According to Mass Effect developer Derek French, both 'Mass Effect' and Spore will use SecuROM copy protection to prevent the software from being pirated. For many Spore fans, this is very sad news. SecuROM brings the added convenience of not having to have the DVD in the drive while playing, but this does not weigh up to the many inconveniences such aggressive copy protection brings on.

Most noticeably, SecuROM requires the user to have an active internet connection during activation and 10 days after, when the product-key will be re-checked.

In an effort to make this less daunting for the legally playing, users are allowed to install Spore up to three times. The fourth time, the game will install, but not launch. The fourth (and therefore defective) install will not influence previous installs.

Also, while SecuROM is a spyware-like copy protection, no separate processes will be run, either visible to the user or "in the background"; the copy protection is wrapped in with Spore's main executable.