Well #1 remember the people ultimately decide a store's policies no matter where you are.. If enough people raise a stink and stop buying products that suck, then the stores will react.

#2 am I dealing with a bunch of youngsters here? So you want to get past the copy protection? Last time I checked, there was no such thing as a "macrovision" type protection on a CD, so the old-school method of recording the CD via analog RCAs in real-time should work. Shoot, you could probably take the digital out on a consumer CD and run it to the digital in of a sound card(if applicable). Sure, it isn't as nice nor as swift as ripping, but it will still do the job, and the differemce in sound quality will be negligible if your sound card is decent enough..

-John M