What exactly does securom do?
 

I’ve noticed, unfortunately, that a bunch of PC games nowadays have securom. Some sources say that is kind of like malware, and some sources say that all it is is a disk check and something that limits the amount of times you can install a game.

Are there varying degrees to what securom does (like do some games only have a disk check while other games create conflicts with burning software or disk drive emulators like daemon tools)? What are the worst things that securom does?

Thanks.

SecuROM has been around in some form or another for YEARS (literally, late 90s here). I think they're up to version 7 or some shit.

It is a method of copy protection, in that it makes disk copying (seemingly) impossible, as when a piece of software that does not know how to handle SecuROM reads over a sector with that data on it, it thinks the disk is corrupt, thus unable to copy. Every time a new version comes out, every piece of burning software in existence learns how to get around it, so its pointless.

The Malware accusation comes from the later versions of SecuROM that would install itself onto the system in an attempt to stop piracy by blocking access to disks that are in its database if the disk lacks the software. This was common on Sony based products and software.