Thats what mine was ... the protective cover. What I did was get a razor to start getting under it. Once I got enough of the edge around the CD removed, I just peeled it off. Those things are tough as hell and out of 4 disks, not one ripped (they were so tough that one of my disks actually broke in the pulling off process but the stupid guard still didnt rip). Once I got the guard off, I just cleaned the top of the disks.