Technology: Sweet Harmony

The DAT dispute is settled

To music lovers and electronics manufacturers, digital audio tape represented a terrific technological leap -- a way to make crisp, distortion-free copies of compact discs and digital broadcasts. But recording-industry artists and executives heard an entirely different tune. To them, DAT would dampen compact disc sales, because one CD could be used to make countless perfect copies. The upshot of the argument was that DAT recorders, sold in Japan and Europe for about two years, have been virtually unavailable in the U.S. Now the two sides have at last found a way to end their dispute. Result: before long Americans will...

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