Why are CDs so hard to open?

Casual theft prevention.
If one could zip them open in a tenth of a second... Theves would be grabbing them by the millions, right in the stores.
Take the CD out, dump the container and it's alarm system.

In case you don't already know, it's alot easier to just unhinge and then pull apart the covers to get the sticker off rather than peel away at it's corners with your thumbnail or whatever.

I hate it too. I like the cardboard ones, but sometimes the cd falls out of them. Vinyl album covers have cool covers, remember?

Goo-Gone will get rid of the residue. You can get it at places like Target, Kroger, hardware stores, etc...

I use a little gizmo I bought for a couple of bucks at a local CD store to open CDs. It has a channel that fits over an edge of the CD and has an internal blade. You simple slide it along the edge with the sticky label. It slices through the plastic wrap and the label and the case opens right up. You can easily peel the two halves of the sticky label off - plenty of surface to grab.