I have to say that if the pirates wanted to break this they would. Lots of game companies use this same protection, I know, I see it on all my newer game CDs. There is actually a web site for gamers to go d/l the crack so they don't have to keep the cd in the drive while they play. I don't worry about scratching a $50 game CD. I do worry about scratching my Lipsinc CD and so I will protect it, but it is nice to know they have decided to allow us to ship the old one back and get a new one if it becomes damaged. After all, how much does it cost a company to burn these CDs, once the program is written? So it is a good thing to work together to prevent piracy, but let's all be sane about it. Without Lipsinc, I would have a lot more work to do, without us, Lipsinc wouldn't have ANY work to do. =)