I don't know about you, but as an audiophile who prefers Redbook CDs as my only front-end source of music recordings, I'm outraged and disgusted by the recently increasing number of digital music recordings which are being released only in a DualDisc, combination CD/DVD package. (http://www.highfidelityreview.com/news/news.asp?newsnumber=11667428).

For those who may not yet be familiar with these DualDisc CD/DVD discs, one side of the disc is claimed to be the equivalent of a standard Redbook audio CD, while the other side consists of an audiovisual DVD containing crap such as music videos, filmed interviews and mini-documentaries of the musical release in question, multi-channel DVD mixes of the music, etc.

Personally, I have zero interest in the DVD side of these DualDiscs, and I deeply resent the prospect of being forced (extorted!) to pay ~$20.00 or more for a DualDisc.

To make matters worse, the fine print on these DualDiscs contains the following sort of disclaimer: "The CD side plays on all but a limited number of CD and DVD models..." This would seem to suggest that some type of anti-copying software may be hidden on both sides of these miserable DualDiscs, and furthermore, the anti-copying software may very well degrade the sound quality of the Redbook CD side of these so-called DualDiscs. (Granted, some Redbook CDs may already contain these poison pills, but I've yet to acquire an audiophile-grade Redbook CD with this sort of garbage.)

To date, I have refused to buy even one of these DualDiscs, but I fear that they could soon become the only available choice for those of us who otherwise simply want to buy a music recording in only the unadulterated, Redbook CD format.

The large, multi-national conglomerates among the recording industry are fast becoming a sort of mafia, and it seems to me that the only way to sever the head of this snake is to simply boycott what they're trying to shove down our throats.

In my opinion, those consumers who swallowed the bait (hook, line, and sinker) of the latest iteration of the multichannel, surround-sound scam, have unwittingly aided and abetted this mafia; and those chickens are now coming home to roost, big-time.

Indeed, the ever expanding, strangulating, and Draconian tactics which the major recording labels have unleashed upon honest (yet often naive) consumers, can largely be traced back to the recording industry's clever resurrection of the failed "quadrophonic" boondoggle from the 1970's. However, the digital age has presented new, superficially seductive, and highly lucrative opportunities to repackage and resell this silly notion of "surround-sound" to the masses, when in reality it has been little more than a digital Trojan Horse which is imposing an ever increasing erosion of our civil rights and choices as consumers.

SACD and DVD-Audio are dead in the water, and yet the same recording industry who tried to hustle these moribund formats are now trying shove DVD down our thoats by attempting to force consumers to help recoup the costs of DVD by inextricably linking the DVD format to Redbook CDs! This is nothing more than the major recording labels shaking-down consumers. Mafia-like, indeed.

My suggestion would be to not buy these DualDiscs. Let's keep our money in our pockets, and allow these DualDiscs to languish on the shelf. Someday, they might make decent drink coasters, or perhaps good targets for shotgun shooting practice.