DataPlay

DataPlay Inc.
Company typeIncorporation
Founded1998[1]
FounderSteve Volk
Headquarters Longmont, Colorado, USA
Key people
Bill Almon, Jr., CEO and President
Jeff Roberts, CFO
ProductsDataPlay Engine
DataPlay 500MB Optical Media
Number of employees
~30 (2006)
Websitewww.DataPlay.com (defunct)

DataPlay is an optical disc system developed by DataPlay Inc. and released to the consumer market in 2002. Using tiny (32mm diameter) disks enclosed in a protective cartridge storing 250MB per side, DataPlay was intended primarily for portable music playback. However, it could also store other types of data using pre-recorded disks and user-recorded disks (and disks that combined pre-recorded information with a writable area).[2] It would also allow for multisession recording.[1] DataPlay Inc. was founded in 1998 by Steve Volk. The company's namesake optical disc won the CES Best of Show award 2001.[3]

DataPlay also included an elaborate digital rights management system designed to allow consumers to "unlock" extra pre-recorded content on the disk at any time, through the internet, following the initial purchase. It was based on the Secure Digital Music Initiative's DRM system.[2] DataPlay's DRM system was one of the reasons behind its attractiveness to the music industry.[4] It also included a proprietary file system, DataPlay File System (DFS) which natively supported DRM. By default, it would allow up to 3 copies to other DataPlay discs, without allowing any copies to CDs.[5]

  1. ^ a b "DataPlay Discs Put a New Spin on Digital Music - The Washington Post". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 2020-04-16.
  2. ^ a b "PCWorld.com - DataPlay Shows Breakthrough in Storage Media". June 8, 2001. Archived from the original on June 8, 2001.
  3. ^ "Consumer Electronics Show 2001". HowStuffWorks. January 11, 2001. Archived from the original on October 28, 2016. Retrieved April 16, 2020.
  4. ^ "New disc format enters crowded market". Archived from the original on 2020-04-13. Retrieved 2020-04-16.
  5. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2016-06-24. Retrieved 2020-04-16.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)