Picture the scene. Your reviewer had just thrown the new Neil Young product into the PC and was leafing through the Warner Brothers’ promotional handout, when he found, stapled to the blurb, a letter from one Susan Genco, Warners’ Senior Vice President, Business and Legal Affairs.

“Dear Recipient,” it began.
“As you’re undoubtedly aware, illegal file trading and piracy are two of the most daunting issues facing the music industry today, and we at Warner Bros. Records are working very hard to deal with these problems. One of our efforts to thwart unauthorized copying of CDs is to watermark the CDs we distribute…
“This watermark has been assigned to you as the authorized recipient of this CD. You, of course, are already bound by the policies of Warner Bros. Records Inc. concerning promotional copies of CDs, and further, by accepting this CD, you also agree to not make any copies of the CD, to not play the CD in your computer and to not upload the CD or any part of it to the internet or otherwise allow, or make, the CD or any part of it available on the internet. You agree that you will not lend this CD to anyone, and that you alone will listen to this CD for promotional purposes. Accordingly, you will not play this CD for anyone.”
Now, leaving aside such minor technicalities as the fact that most working hacks listen to CDs while sitting at their computer, such missives do raise other issues. For instance, if the journalist’s spouse blunders past while the CD is playing, should the Warners’ legal department be notified? Or should the hypothetical third party be subjected to a programme of hypnosis in order to erase all memories of the artefact in question? Or, say, should the journalist’s pet pooches wander by, attracted by the canine-centric vocal range of Mr Young, what then? Should they be put to sleep in order to preclude dire litigious consequences?
Furthermore, perhaps all reviews of the CD in question should omit song titles, identifying musical characteristics or lyrical quotes lest some enterprising black marketeers record their own bootleg version based said review.
Indeed you, constant reader, can play your part in battling the scourge of music industry piracy by forgetting you ever heard tell of a new Neil Young album at all, and save us all a sheaf of lawsuits.