SecuROM

SecuROM was a copy protection/digital rights management (DRM) product used in PC games from the late 1990s and throughout the 2000s. It quickly became controversial due to its malware-like approach, installing itself with administrator/root permissions on the user's PC and being almost impossible to remove. Many high profile games that included it were heavily criticized including Bioshock, Mass Effect, and Spore; the latter culminating in a class action lawsuit against its publishers Electronic Arts. It gradually fell out of usage in the early-mid 2010s.

As of Windows 10, the majority of SecuROM games do not run without patches.

In LEGO Island

While the vast majority of LEGO Island copies feature no copy protection or DRM whatsoever, SecuROM was unexpectedly discovered on an Italian copy of the game. It's currently unknown if all Italian copies implement SecuROM or only some. It's also unknown whether any other versions implement it.

Circumvention

SecuROM is baked into the copy's version of ISLE.EXE, and replacing it wholesale with any other unprotected version of ISLE.EXE will defeat the protection.

External Links

• SecuROM on Wikipedia
• Modern Vintage Gamer's YouTube video on SecuROM