Re: Caveat Lector: Beastie Boys Evil

[Ron Thigpen <rthigpen () nc rr com>]

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