Coldplay’s latest CD, X&Y, has been hobbled by so much DRM that a lawyer would practically have to lick the monolith at the end of 2001 to be able to figure out how someone could legally play it. This time, though, it’s Capitol Records, as Sony BMG are still on Spyware Settlement Siesta.

Dear RIAA – here’s an interesting question for you. When you tell your customers (by definition, the only people who are actually guaranteed to have paid for the album they are listening to) that they didn’t actually purchase anything for their twenty bucks, what is stopping them from loading up DC++ next time and just downloading a pristine DRM-less copy of your next shitty release?

Try not to sneeze brains here. Actually think it through. In one scenario, your customer is out twenty dollars and forbidden to even play his legally purchased music on his Mac, let alone make a legally-protected backup copy. In the other, he can listen to the music any damn he wants without paying a dime. Why wouldn’t a criminalized customer base do the obvious things and become the criminals you want them to be? At least the criminals can listen to the purloined album on a fucking iPod.

Here’s what you aren’t allowed to do if you legally purchase the next Coldplay CD:

The DRM restrictions prevent the CD from being played in “some” CD players, CD-recordable or rewritable hard drives, DVD players, game consoles such as a Playstation or Xbox, and prevents any attempt to copy the CD or “rip” the tracks to MP3 format. The CD’s restrictions also prevent it from being played or copied on Macintosh PCs.

Don’t buy the new Coldplay album.

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