Buy: Sountrack to "Fast & Furious"

Then take it outside, open it up, throw the packaging away, go back inside the store and say "it doesn't work in my Macintosh. I can't listen to it on my computer, and since my bedroom is kinda small, that's what I use as my stereo. I want a refund."

Universal has instructed all retail outlets that they'll accept returns, even opened ones, if the customer can't play it. So do just that. Or maybe wait a day.

See, "The Fast & The Furious" is a copy-protected CD. It will only play, audio-wise, in Windows computers and audio CD players (supposedly). They're trying this out as kind of a pilot project - when this is successful, they will make it happen to all of their CDs (hopefully by mid 2002, they say). So let's try real hard to make it not happen. Go buy a copy at Target. Best Buy. Wal Mart. Record & Tape Traders. Whereever you can find one. Then take them all back. Do it a couple times - once on your credit card, with cash, etc. Go in on different days at the same store and do it. My personal goal is to have "owned" and returned 5 copies of this CD, and I hope you'll do the same.

See, this copy protection may indeed be legal right now, but they're working on far more devious plots. Right now, you can't play that CD in your Macintosh. Well, that's the only computer I rip MP3's with. And MP3's are not illegal. They're not even unethical, considering probably a good 90% of the MP3's I have, I have ripped myself. But the Recording Industry Association of America wants to make that so, slowly squashing your right, under the Fair Use section of copyright law, to make personal backup copies. That's just what an MP3 is for me - a backup that I will listen to while the CD sits and gathers dust. If I accidentally delete an MP3, it's no big deal - I re-rip it. If I accidentally lose the CD, it's no big deal - I re-burn it. They want to take this right away from you.

Please, don't stand for it. Show them that you won't. Show them with your wallet. Buy this CD at as many places as you can. Open it up, take it out, take a little looksy at it and then take it back. Please do this - you're helping us keep our rights, and there's no cost to yo - it couldn't get better.

Just so you know, here's how I plan to do it:

Go buy it. No big deal.

Open it up, put it back in the case. Wait a few days. Take it back, with receipt, to the store I bought it at. Say "Yeah, I got this about a week ago and when I went home, it wouldn't play on my computer. So then I read on the internet that this CD wouldn't play on Macintosh platforms, which is what I use, and that Universal was allowing returns. So I'd like my money back." Just like that.

When they give me my money back, I'll take it and go to another store and do the same thing.