Earlier this week, I blogged about Coldplay's DRM on their latest CD, X&Y, which contains a supercilious disclaimer that sternly instructs you that "in order for you to enjoy a high quality music experience" the CD is crippled with DRM that can prevent the disc from being ripped to MP3, played in game consoles, DVD players, car stereos, personal players, and half a zillion other devices.
What we didn't know is whether the CDs in your corner store were infected with this DRM, and since the insert in the CD told you that you could only return the CD for material defects, and not if you disagreed with these restrictions, that was bad news.
Now we know a little bit more about who's likely to get an infected CD. A knowledgeable source has identified this as a Macrovision DRM and disclaimer, and noted that the label only bought licenses to sell this CD with that DRM in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region.
However, the original report originates in India, which suggests that the CDs are either being exported out of the region, or that the label is issuing the discs without a license for their DRM.
Bottom line: wherever you are in the world, there's a chance that your Coldplay CD came with this DRM, and there's no way to find out without buying the disc and taking it home, and once you do, it's too late to take it back to the store.
Update: Ben sez, "Not sure if it is of interest—- but I received one of the ColdPlay DRM CD for Christmas. It was originally bought in Toronto at the Future Shop on Eglington near Laird in East York. When I insert it into my Windows XP PC is doesn't let me play it using the standard CD player applications nor does it let me rip it using Windows Media Player."
Update 2: Santiago sez, "I bought the Coldplay CD as a Christmas present for my girlfriend in Mexico City (the CD is manufactured here in Mexico). When she tried to convert it to mp3's so she could upload it to her iPod, her computer didn't recognize the CD."
Update 4: John in Australia sez, "My office-mate bought the Coldplay CD and it wouldn't rip. I had her try reinserting the disk holding down the shift key and it ripped, but with intrusive noises added every few seconds, so there were at least two levels of copy protection."
