Editing Digital Audio Tape (section)

== Anti-DAT lobbying ==
{{See also|Audio Home Recording Act#History and legislative background}}
[[File:Aiwa DAT recorder and Sony DAT tape (edited).jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|[[Aiwa]] HD-S1 portable DAT recorder from 1990 with DAT tape for size comparison. It is 146&nbsp;mm high and 95&nbsp;mm wide, the thickness is 38&nbsp;mm.<ref>[http://www.datrecorders.co.uk/hds1.php Technical data of Aiwa HD-S1], from datrecorders.co.uk, retrieved on 27 January 2023</ref>]]
In the late 1980s, the [[Recording Industry Association of America]] (RIAA) unsuccessfully lobbied against the introduction of DAT devices into the U.S. Initially, the organization threatened legal action against any manufacturer attempting to sell DAT machines in the country. It later sought to impose restrictions on DAT recorders to prevent them from being used to copy LPs, CDs, and prerecorded cassettes. One of these efforts, the [[Digital Audio Recorder Copycode Act of 1987]] (introduced by [[Al Gore|Sen. Al Gore]] and [[Henry Waxman|Rep. Waxman]]), initiated by CBS Records president [[Walter Yetnikoff]], involved a technology called [[CopyCode]] and required DAT machines to include a chip to detect attempts to copy material recorded with a [[notch filter]],<ref>{{cite journal |last1= Holt|first1= J. Gordon|last2= Gold|first2= Alvin|year= 1987|title= Copycode: Diminishing DAT|journal= Stereophile|url= http://www.stereophile.com/asweseeit/copycode_diminishing_dat/index.html|access-date= 12 June 2012}}</ref> meaning that copyrighted prerecorded music, whether analog or digital, whether on LP, cassette, or DAT, would have distorted sound resulting from the notch filter applied by the publisher at the time of mastering for mass reproduction. A [[National Bureau of Standards]] study showed that not only were the effects plainly audible, but that it was not even effective at preventing copying.{{fact|date=July 2022}}

This opposition by CBS softened after Sony, a DAT manufacturer, bought CBS Records in January 1988. By June 1989, an agreement was reached, and the only concession the RIAA would receive was a more practical recommendation from manufacturers to Congress that legislation be enacted to require that recorders have a [[Serial Copy Management System]] to prevent digital copying for more than a single generation.<ref><!--this reference applies to the entire paragraph up to this point-->{{cite magazine|last=Goldberg|first=Michael|date=21 September 1989|title=Labels Back Down on DAT|magazine=Rolling Stone|issue=561|page=26}}</ref> This requirement was enacted as part of the [[Audio Home Recording Act]] of 1992, which also imposed [[Private copying levy|taxes]] on DAT recorders and blank media. However, the [[computer industry]] successfully lobbied to have [[personal computers]] exempted from that act, setting the stage for massive consumer copying of copyrighted material on materials like [[CD-R|recordable CDs]] and by extension, [[filesharing]] systems such as [[Napster]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Knopper|first=Steve|title=Appetite for Self-Destruction|url=https://archive.org/details/appetiteforselfd00knop_0|url-access=registration|year=2009|publisher=Simon and Schuster: Free Press|pages=[https://archive.org/details/appetiteforselfd00knop_0/page/78 78–9]}}</ref>