I had a little freakout at Sony BMG the other week. I bought the new Imogen Heap CD at Best Buy. 'Twas a windy night, and I decided I'd like to listen to the CD while I fishied my chores. I unwrapped the CD and threw it into my car's CD-changer. As I was playing around in the trunk, the wind caught hold of my bag, complete with receipt, and blew it away. Hmm. . . . What are the odds I'm going to need that receipt?" I said to myself.

That evening, my dad and I were on the phone tech-supporting my ReplayTV and I noticed the SunnComm label on the back of the CD. "Do you know anything about Sony BMG's copy-protection?" I asked my dad as I popped the CD in.

"Yes," he replied warily.

"What?" I asked.

"Don't use it," he said.

"So I should say no to this installation agreement?"

"Yes. Do not accept."

This was the week that the world started freaking out about First4Internet's XCP software, but mine wasn't First4Internet, so we couldn't immediately find anything on what this software was doing to my computer. We disabled the autorun, then tried pulling only the music files through Nero. It didn't work.

The next day, I found this article at Freedom to Tinker, the first article I found that equated SunnComm's software with First4Internet's. That evening, I followed the instructions, deleted all the hidden files that SunnComm installed before the end license user's agreement had finished loading, and restored the system back to a couple days before I put the CD into my computer. I turned off the autorun again (important step!), then loaded up iTunes and ripped away.

That weekend, I took the CD back to Best Buy, brought along a couple articles to support my position, and got store credit (damned wind!).

What I don't get is why Best Buy (and HMV, where I'd originally been put on a wait list for the CD. They called and when I told them I wouldn't be buying the CD because of the copy-protection software, said, "Well, do ya have a Mac?") won't ake a stand and refuse to sell these discs. This can't be good for business. People who have less of a grasp on technology are going to buy these CDs, and get fucked for doing so. They're going to have no clue why their computers are running slowly, why their CDs are playing so choppily, why their iPods don't work right. Consumer protection has to be part of Best Buy's mandate. I would much prefer having to ask for music and being told that it isn't being stocked than to have to go through the effort of having to uninstall software I haven't asked for and make an extra trip to the store to return the CD.

Nasty dealings by manufacturers isn't going to make more people buy legitimate CDs, nor is it going to stop iPod users from ripping Sony CDs, or iTunes users from making MP3s. All it's going to do is convince me that people who steal music are really onto something.