Chris Merkel wrote:
FWIW, the Mike D said that he would have preferred that there were no DRM on the album, but that it's a standard practice for all EMI releases. Check out this post from BoingBoing: http://www.boingboing.net/2004/06/11/new_beasties_disc_ha.html
An unsubstantiated comment indicates that the DRM is _not_ present in the US and UK versions of this release.
Does anyone know if the DRM malware used in this case is of the driver-installer type that can be defeated by holding down the Shift key when loading a CD into the drive?
I don't know if this applies in this particular case, but I have heard reports that Philips will not allow DRM-choked releases that don't comply with the CD standard to display the 'Compact Disc Digital Audio' logo. This is no guarantee, but a disc with the logo should be less likely to be hobbled in this way than one without.
A good means to express consumer power is to ask your retailer about their returns policy in these cases, and to make a return if you encounter one of these discs.
--rt