Amazon's Spore reviews vanish in 'glitch', return soon after

We're not sure if Amazon is secretly displeased with its recent transformation from major online retailer to caustic protester staging ground. Gamers dissatisfied with Spore's "draconian" digital rights management attacked the game's reputation en masse earlier this week, dragging its user rating down and posting scathing reviews targeted at the three-installation limit imposed by the included SecuROM software. The slate was suspiciously wiped clean today, only to be restored moments before the publishing of this article.

Glitch, or conspiracy? As much as we'd like to point to the latter, Amazon tells us it was nothing more than a "site glitch." Says Amazon: "Amazon did not knowingly or consciously choose to remove the reviews. The team is working on resolving this issue now and restoring all the reviews on the site.

"Per our policy, Amazon doesn't censor or edit customer reviews and we'd only remove a review if it fell outside our guidelines." Regardless, we hope Spore publisher EA has heard the angry cries of legitimate game owners entangled in an anti-piracy net.

[Thanks to everyone who panicked and sent this in!]