Digital Audio Tapes stir legal battle
By John Payne
.Senior Reporter
Just imagine — a way to record
your favorite new compact discs onto
tape with the same high-resolution
clarity -- no hiss, no flaws, just pure
audio utopia? A music lover’s dream,
right?
Actually, Digital Audio Tapes, or
DATs, have been around for three
years, and they’re that good. So good
in fact, that they’ve ignited a fierce
legal battle between factions of the
recording industry, songwriters and
electronic manufacturers who pro
duce the DATs and DAT recorders.
The mini-cassettes deliver com
pact disc sound quality while provid
ing the portability and all-around
convenience of an analog cassette.
Although they’ve been popular items
in Japan, Thailand and Singapore for
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over three years, they’ve just recently
become available to American con
sumers.
At the forefront of the debate is the
Home Recording Rights Coalition, a
Washington-based group that has been
fighting for the right of the U.S. con
sumer to tape such materials as al
bums and CDs for personal use.
Distinguishing between what the
coalition calls “home taping’’ and
what the National Music Publishers
Association calls “piracy” has been ,
a dilemma since conventional cas
settes were introduced to the elec
tronics market.
The recording industry, songwrit
ers and music publishers had never
pursued the matter too vigorously,
realizing that most music lovers would
always prefer the clarity of the origi
nal recording, be it vinyl, tape or CD.
Blank audio cassettes never posed a
serious threat.
The NMPA, especially the Song
writer’s Guild of America, considers
the DATs and DAT recorders a seri
ous threat. Their reasoning is simple
— Digital Audio Tapes are capable of
reproducing, with the same crisp sound,
duplicates from other media. Many
recording artists feel this would open
the door for people to make an infi
nite number of copies from one DAT
to another, while losing none of the
quality from tape to tape and remain
ing indistinguishable from the origi
nal.
Stereo West, 4011 O St., is one of
only 28 electronic retailers in the
United States that carries DAT re
corders and tapes. Stereo West sales
man Kent Garrison lauds the DATs
for what he calls “an impeccable
sound.”
“I was amazed when I first heard
one,” he said. “There’s absolutely
no tape hiss. They’re very compa
rable to compact disc in sound.”
DATs function much like video
cassettes, with a protective sliding
plate that keeps the tape itself unex
posed until it is put into the tape deck.
DATs record on one side only at
about one-eighth the speed of analog
cassettes.
Electronic manufacturers and the
music industry had come to an appar
ent compromise last year, when :
manufacturers agreed to produce only 1
DATs that could record from one
source, but not onto another. This
would makes it possible for consum
ers to digitally record their favorite
albums and CDs for convenience, while
preventing digital copies of the cop
ies. The agreement fell through when
songwriters and the NMPA formed
the Copyright Coalition and filed suit
last July against several manufactur
ers to address the issue of royalty
taxes on DATs and DAT recorders.
Mike Blevins, spokesman for the
coalition, said the controversy is solely
about money.
“If you look at record companies’
profits, they’re all having their best
years ever.” he said. “They’re mak
ing enormous profits, and yet they
want to make even more money off
Stereo West manager Jim Krysl displays the Sony Digital Audio
Tapes recorder.
something that has nothing to do with
hem. It’s greed, plain and simple.”
Blevins is quick to point out that a
recent government survey concluded
Lhat most home tapings of pre-re
corded music are made from a per
sonal collection. Perhaps more im
portantly, the survey concluded that
most personal taping doesn’t even
involve music.
‘ ‘Why should college students, for
example, have to pay a royalty tax to
record companies if they want to record
notes in cl^ss?”
Blevins said the coalition expects
the Copyright Coalition to propose a
royalty tax to Congress when it re
convenes in January.
‘‘That’s something we feel very
strongly about,” Blevins said. “We
will fight it.”
Such a tax probably would amount
to about 90 cents per tape, tax on
DAT recoiders notwithstanding, he
said. Digital Audio Tapes now retail
at anywhere from $10 to $15, de
pending on tape length.
Ed Murphy, a spokesman for the
NMPA, says the DAT system could
easily result in copyright infringe
ment.
“ We ’ ve made our posi lion clear, ’ ’
Murphy said in a telephone interview
from New York. “We think people
should have to pay for our music.”
Blevins said that until Congress
reconvenes to decide on a potential
proposal from the Copyright Coali
tion, his group will continue to make
consumers aware of the situation.
“The whole crux of this matter is
home taping, which is something we
think people have a right to do,” he
said.
Films
Continued from Page 9
been for the integrated studies major.
I’d probably be somewhere else ma
joring in film,’’ Slilwell said.
If he could do 11 again, Slilwell
said, “Without a doubt, I would major
again in film studies."
Professor Levine said that the
professors creating the major have
been hampered by a lack of financial
support.
“We’ve operated on the basis of
‘how good can we make it with our
existing lesources?" Levine said.
Another stumbling point for the
area is that film studies is not a de
partment More could be accomplished
— and die program could grow — if
film studies was a department, Lev
ine said.
But one major plus for the area,
Levine said, is the Sheldon Film
Theater.
‘ ‘The Sheldon is a marvelous place
to view films,” Levine said.
Once students arc done at L'NL,
Levine said, they have two choices.
They can go to graduate school at one
of the eminent film schools in the
United States — New York Univer
sity’s Tisch School of the Arts and the
University of California at Los Ange
les arc two highly regarded schools,
Levine said - or students can try to
get an entry-level job in film.
Experts arc divided as to which
road is best, Levine said. Some promi
nent directors, such as Steven Spielberg
and Marun Scorccse did to to gradu
ate school, but scores of others didn’t.
Some directors say that on-the-job
experience is the most important key
to being successful in film.
Former UNL students include the
librarian on the American Film Insti
tute archives and several professors
of film.
However, whichever road students
choose, Levine points out that film is
not an easy career to get involved
with. “It’s an extremely crowded,
expensive field,’ ’ she said. “ It’s not a
field -- like, say, computer science --
that is growing. It (film) is not even a
field where you’re assured of a job if
you’re reasonably competent. It’s
difficult.”
Anthrax
Continued from Page 9
ding, Mclvins-likc riff that can only
be called heavy. Very heavy. And
incredibly catchy.
“Intro to Reality” is the only
downer on the album, an instru
mental that seems to be Anthrax’s
“One,” or some sort of Meiallica
acoustic take-off.
But forgive and forget, because
“Got the Time,” that Joe Jackson
tune that roamed the AOR airwaves,
now has been injected with a dose
of amphetamines. Anthrax takes
this short spurt of a cover and zips
through it with a staccato backing
riff and crystal clear vocals from
Belladonna.
Ian and Benanie slill lack the
substantial guitar solo genius that
would be nice, but for pure mosh
power, these guys can’t be beat.
Those days in S.O.D. will never
leave them, luckily.
“Persistence ofTimc’’ isamust
for Anthrax fans, and a superior
release from one of the true origi
nators of thrash.
