According to the Guardian Unlimited, Bertelsmann BMG will begin offering three flavors of CDs to its German customers: an "anti-piracy" CD with no frills (only title and information on the disc) for 9.99 Euros, a regular version for 12.99 Euros, and a "luxury" version with additional features for 17.99 Euros.

Maarten Steinkamp, the head of the label in Germany, said the "anti-piracy" CD will look exactly like the one burned at home -- essentially a bootleg-style version of the CD. He added that it would be "absurd" to keep sticking "Don't Steal Music" labels on albums. "It would be better for us to write, 'Thanks a lot for buying something from us,'" he said.

It's tough to imagine this scenario happening in the U.S., where we need legislation to get the record companies to put warnings on copy-protected CDs to let the public know that the CDs have been hobbled, and are therefore worth...well, less.