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 famously culminating in a class action lawsuit against its publisher Electronic Arts. It gradually fell out of usage in the early-mid 2010s in favor of newer non-physical technologies such as Steam.

Due to higher security in Windows 10, the majority of SecuROM games no longer run, requiring patches to the game to run without SecuROM. f

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. These were the most likely to include it, which often functioned as a disc check or an online product activation system with limited installations.

Circumvention

For versions that implement it, SecuROM is baked into ISLE.EXE. Replacing it wholesale with any other unprotected version of ISLE.EXE or using SecuROM removal tool will defeat the protection entirely.

External Links

PCGamingWiki page on SecuROM How‑To Geek article on running SecuROM games Reddit discussion about SecuROM in game releases UMA Technology article on SecuROM issues