SEV: CD-check present?

[AstralWanderer]

As a (reasonably) long-term SE-fan (SEIII and IV), I've been looking forward to SEV for a while. However one concern I've had is about whether it requires the CD to be present when playing. This has never been necessary with SE until StarFury and SEIVeluxe and is a major concern for me due to the serious inconvenience of changing CDs (on a laptop) plus the greater exposure to environmental hazards (scratching, etc).

Can anyone with the retail copy confirm whether it can be run without the CD present or not? If not, I'll just have to put my purchase off until a crack appears on GameCopyWorld or a similar site.