Last time, Sony's DRM was defeated by a dark marking pen. This time it is a piece of tape. (Who knows, the pen may work as well.)
A Gartner research post Sony BMG DRM a Public-Relations and Technology Failure describes the simple technique. They also sum up the music industry's efforts at implementing DRM quite eloquently. “Gartner believes that it will never achieve this goal as long as CDs must be playable by stand-alone CD players.”
We have come full circle on this story and I am now done with it.