Maxis' Spore is heading to court.

Maryland resident Melissa Thomas filed a class action lawsuit against publisher EA this week over alleged issues encountered with Spore's DRM (Digital Rights Management) software, SecuROM.

On behalf of the proposed class, Thomas alleges that the DRM is invasive, and that EA kept the installation of SecuROM a "secret" from users.

"Whenever it downloads, installs or runs, SecuROM uses resources belonging to the computer owner, which by definition, makes those resources unavailable for other tasks," read the complaint, filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

"...Nowhere in any of EA's discussions, responses or explanations of its DRM did EA disclose that the Spore disk contained a separately-installed, stand-alone, uninstallable DRM program..."

The plaintiff and class seek damages in the amount of monies paid for Spore games, legal fees and other damages that in total amount to over $5 million.

EA is accused of violating the Consumer Legal Remedies Act, unfair competition and interfering with property.

The Spore DRM debacle has begun to overshadow the merits of the game itself. When the game launched earlier this month, anti-DRM posters flooded the game's Amazon.com listing with one-star reviews, many complaining about SecuROM. Thomas' complaint cited several of these comments.

Thomas' complaint also claimed that the only way to remove SecuROM completely is to wipe the PC's hard drive or replace the hard drive.

EA recently bowed to pressure from anti-DRM users, choosing to loosen some of the property protection methods that Spore previously implemented in order to help appease concerned gamers.

An EA rep did not immediately offer comment on the case.