Posted by bmcswain on 12/27/56 11:33

I stated a thread entitled " Video standards are changing. What is
today's best format for future flexabliity?" The real point is about
standards and storage formats that are abandoned.

In the upcoming issue of PC Mag John C. Dvorak write about the bigger
issue - "Dead Media Everywhere." He specifcally points to digital
camera, but also reminds us of the first digital, moveable, storable
format - Paper Tape.

Dvorak writes: "This topic came up yet again on the latest Twit podcast
in which I took part. I was discussing the old Silicon Spin TV show and
how I managed to grab all the tapes of four years' worth of shows
before they were unceremoniously given to the Waste Management
Corporation as refuse.

"That said, the tapes were recorded on a specific kind of digital
broadcast system that will probably disappear. Though dead media is all
around us, in broadcasting the whole scene is strewn with it. The few
2-inch, four-head Ampex videotape machines that are still working are
busy dubbing old analog tapes to digital formats, and it's unlikely
they will get everything transferred before the last head wears out.
This means a lot of material from the 1960s will be forever lost."

And toward the end of his column: "Many of these strategies have to do
with the fact that standards are not enforced the way they should. This
is very inconvenient. The DV camcorder sound formats, for example, vary
wildly. I have numerous tapes that cannot be played on certain players
and cameras. It's ridiculous."

One interesting poster to the forum on this topic proposed that
"Discontinued product lines lose all copyrights and invalidates all
EULAs. Abandoned technologies lose all patents.

"Fumble the ball, any individual or company has the right to recover
the ball.

"A major downside of software idea patents and software copyright is
that these companies have the sole right to go out of business and
leave their customers out to dry."

The Article:
http://www.pcmag.com/print_article2/0,1217,a=166260,00.asp

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