This CD is copy protected and cannot be played on PCs or Macs.
Surely enough, the drive on my machine at work (which had no problem playing or ripping Midbar Cactus 2.0 EMI Copy Control) fails to see the disc at all.
There was no warning of the disc being anything other than a CD anywhere on the outside of the packaging; certainly no "Don't Buy Me" stickers; one has to open the jewel case to see the notice and realise that one spent A$30 on a booklet and a drink coaster.
I intend to take the CD back to JB Hi-Fi and demand my money back, and/or complain to the ACCC or some other government body.
Update: I took the CD back to JB HiFi today. They gave me a refund in cash; the fact that the CD was not labelled as defective probably had a lot to do with it.
Ah. Well, I just sent them an email, actually. (I wonder if they'd have any of those promo copies left over.) Though fat lot of good it's going to do me if they don't fux0r their next compilation.
and yes, they do the Back To Mine compos. They're not bad (the New Order one was enlightening), apart from the fact that all the songs are mixed into each other (which gets annoying if you're DJing or making mix tapes).
I'd be really interested to hear how JB reacts to your complaint. I know they have a policy of not refunding once the shrinkwrap has been removed, but this is an interesting scenario.
Is this that scheme you can trick by running a texta around a few of the outside 'tracks' of the CD?
I don't believe so; there is no visible sign of any gaps or any hint as to where the content ends.
Given that the disc fails on every CD-ROM drive I've tried as well as on my portable CD player, chances are it's pervasively fucked all the way through.
Congratulations on convincing them to give you a refund!
It wasn't all that hard to do so; they didn't really argue, presumably because I was sold it under false pretenses.
I bet this came out of a meeting of nineteen 19-year-old music industry heavyweights: hey guyz, how can we increase CD sales?
Interestingly, <a href="http://ukcdr.org/issues/cd/bad/dmc-20030610.txt">DMC have already apologised</a>, promising not to do it again. Well that's something. (Don't they do all those Back To Mine compilations as well?)