All Tubular Bells 2003 CDs contain copy protection. Or to put it simply all Tubular Bells 2003 CDs are corrupt and full of deliberate errors placed there by the record company. This means that it will severely limit your rights as a consumer to play the disc on equipment of your choosing such as car CD players, game consoles (PlayStation, X-BOX, etc), DVD players, portable CD players, digital home cinema systems and even some 'normal' CD players.

Some forms of copy protection reduce the scratch-resistance of the disc, making its average life-span shorter, make the quality of the sound degrade quicker as the disc gets older and can cause early failure for older CD players.

More information on the subject can be found on several independent websites such as :

Campaign for Digital Rights
Fat Chuck's

If we just grumble to ourselves about the problem but do nothing it is certain that all future releases will be in this format. As record company's keep developing this technology the problem may become even worse. What next, a disc that will only play in a Warner player?

Join the campaign. If you are unhappy at having your rights as a consumer abused and have a device that won't play the disc correctly take it back to the store you purchased it from, explain the problem to them and demand a refund. It is your legal right to a refund for faulty goods (at least in the UK). Only then will the record company realise that we as honest record buying members of the public are unhappy with the situation.

If you run a Mike Oldfield website why not join the campaign by displaying the "Just say no to copy protected CDs" logo (can be found here).

Sites already making a stand:

Yet Another Mike Oldfield Website
Richard Carter's Mike Oldfield Discography
Amadian - Mike Oldfield: The Sound of the Bell
TheWayfarer.org (Spanish)
www.hibernaculum.de (German)