Annoying as it is, that feature is probably keeping the cost down. Think of how high the price would be if for every 1 copy sold there were 4 or 5 pirated CD's out there. Their policy may stink, but how many CD's have broken on you? They also sell CD repair kits that work pretty well incase it really does get scratched and you costs about $30 or so and will fix hundreds of CD's. So if the issue is only about their method of copy protection, then I agree and there are better ways. My real question is, how does the software run? Does it give you a good lip syncing?