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Well, I know this is hours old by now, but just because you need a special device does not mean it is "DRM protected". By that measure you could say that 5.25 disks are DRM protected because you need to have a 5.25 drive to read them, right?

Of course I was kidding in the parent post because why would you want to copy an 8 track anyway, and does anyone still have them? Don't answer, I know you guys are out there somewhere. ;)

>Trouble is...where would I find the 8-track tape to play in it??

It's the vintage 4-track that you might have trouble with. Had one in my 54 Chevy sedan. (Now there was a back seat to be proud of.)

Some of us still have 8-track minds.

http://www.8trackheaven.com/index2.html

If they wanted to, they could have gone after you for every cassette or VHS tape you ever copied. What stopped them was cost/benefit

http://www.8trackheaven.com/work.html/

I agree. But even Apple can't beat the design of this iPod killer

Is there anyone else (apart from me) who parses 'Atrac' as 'Eight-Track'?

Shortsighted

One of the reasons DRM is so insane is because it is incredibly short sighted. I have records that are over 50 years old. I can play those records on virtually any turntable out there. Imagine if those records had been made with some sort of primitive DRM that required them to be played on a specific machine or required a call into a company to input a code before they would play. The truth is that most of those record companies don't even exist today. A huge cultural legacy would be lost.

The truth is obsolescence is already built in. Formats change computer file systems change, OSes change, our standards of quality change. My bet is that 50 years from now it will be just as rare to find someone playing mp3 files as it is tto find people playing old records now. You will have find a machine to read a certain kind of hard disk, find a way to read a particular file system, and then to interpret the format. Making those formats closed is virtually insuring the digital death of the music (or the video or whatever data they happen to contain).

I already see this problem with old software and data. I have a ton of programs from the apple ][ days. With some doing I can get that data off the old 5 1/2 inch disks and into an emulator under OS X. Most programs work and I can see the data (mainly high school book reports in appleworks), but it's a lot of effort. Luckily I was pretty good about keeping serial numbers around, but the programs that inevitably fail are the ones with anti-copy copy protection. Even back then the odd sector layout would cause problems on certain disk drives. Now the programs are essentially dead. With enough work I could probably revive them, but who has the time? We see the same problem now with certain cds with bad data written in on purpose to foil copying, but also foil playing on certain systems (actually in this case maybe it is a good thing to prevent Celine Dion from propagating her evil).

I have the same problem with my old Mac data circa 1984/85 even without copy protection. I have data in formats of programs that simply don't exist anymore (does anyone remember Fullwrite...so far ahead of it's time, but doomed by MS Word). My only hope for reading this data is finding an old machine or waiting until someone builds a good 68000 emulator (vmac has a ways to go)

Doing this to music (on purpose no less) is particularly insidious because music is one of the things that should live on as a cultural legacy. When I buy a CD I want it to last and I want to be able to play it whether I am here in LA or in a Kashgari taxi. I doubt that 2053 my grandkids will enjoy my Nada Surf mp3s the way I enjoy my grandfather's Vera Lynn and Tex Williams records, but I would like them to have the chance at listening to them in the first place.

I think the minaturization of portable music has already been played out to its ultimate conclusion. Does anyone remember these? (In case my link didn't work correctly, and I suspect it wont... http://www.8trackheaven.com/pocketrock.html )

Can you get a drive to read 8 track music today?

Yes! Start here.

Or how about a tape recorder/player which works with spools of soft iron wire (used in the 1940s).

Museums such as the Smithsonian Institution maintain equipment that can still read old formats.

The only data sure to last thru time is that which can be read by humans directly: Text

And what happens in 802701, when nobody knows the English language anymore?

and Photos on film/paper.

Film rots; paper rots unless it's acid-free. What are the oldest pieces of visual art that survive? Cave paintings.

Building an 8-Track player from scratch is a slightly trickier proposition.

The Lear 8-track format is just 6.4mm magnetic tape with eight evenly spaced tracks recorded in one direction at 95mm/s. There are still lots of reel-to-reel recorders that can read this format; just look in any recording studio with an analog reel-to-reel tape deck.

See also 8 Track Heaven

Added
OZONE. Makes winamp sound like older and better analog media (ie warmer and deeper).
GROOVY Now my PC thinks its an 8Track player.