NewtonTalk.net September 2009 archive: Re: [NTLK] [OT] New Sony

From: Tony Douglas <tonyisyourpal_at_netscape.net>
Date: Thu Sep 03 2009 - 08:27:53 EDT

Hi,

Yes, there were indeed SCMS strippers available - they were quite
common for use with "domestic" DAT recorders back in the day. Mind you,
the total difference between a "professional" portable DAT recorder and
a "domestic" portable DAT recorder was generally the *absence* of the
SCMS system ! (Barring any ruggedization that was done to the
mechanicals...) But why should anyone have had to go to the expense of
buying extra equipment (of possibly questionable legality) simply to
use equipment they had already bought and paid for to use in a
completely legal way ?

Another entry in the "Acts of Egregious Stupidity by Sony" file might
be the use of UMDs in the PlayStation Portable - a UMD basically being
a MiniDisc, but without the retractable cover for the disc - so your
nice expensive PSP game is afforded *less* physical protection than the
cheap blank MD it's based on... still, at least your vulnerable UMD is
in a nice funky curved casing, which is *way* more important...

Bah !

- Tony

-----Original Message-----
From: James Fraser <wheresthatistanbul-newtontalk@yahoo.com>
To: newtontalk@newtontalk.net
Sent: Thu, Sep 3, 2009 12:48 pm
Subject: Re: [NTLK] [OT] New Sony eReader PRS-600: Newton/Kindle Killer?

Hello,

--- On Wed, 9/2/09, Tony Douglas <tonyisyourpal@netscape.net> wrote:

> My beef with Sony goes back to the fiasco that was MiniDisc
> - what could have been an excellent format and replacement for
> compact cassettes sunk by marketing & protection driven
> paranoia, thusly ...
>
> OK, you can record your own original music. But don't try
> copying it digitally, because although it's your own composition we
> use SCMS so we think you're a copyright cheat.

Weren't there kits you could buy that would allow you to burn out (or
somehow
disable) the SCMS chip?

I could have sworn an audio geek friend of mine showed me an ad for
such a kit
in a magazine around the time when MiniDisc and DAT were being taken
seriously.

The big laugh was that Sony thought they had everything nicely locked
down and
tightly controlled, whilst all the time hobbyists were smiling
innocently and
quietly tweaking things so they could get what they wanted out of the
equipment
they'd paid money for. :)

Best,

James Fraser

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