#: 9647 S15/Hot Topics
    01-Mar-91  00:45:06
Sb: #9601-High Sierra CDROM fmts
Fm: PaulSeniura 76476,464
To: Kevin Darling 76703,4227 (X)

Our local PBS station just broadcasted this week's "Computer Chronicles" and
the subject was CDROMs!  The companies are finally sending the same CD for both
PCs and Macs with the machine accessing the appropriate application pgms.  So
one hopes those of us who want to hook a drive up, can call or write the
software co. to get the poop on their database formats (as opposed to the ISO
sector & directory formats which *should* be standard, and OS9 would need the
file mgr for).

I called our local CDROM expert - my goodness he didn't want "us" to be able to
read these critters.  He even went so far to wonder whether what we're wanting
to do is a copyright violation.  I said - Listen, if I go down there to plunk
down $895.00 for Compton's Encyclopedia, is THAT a legal copy OR WHAT?

So ... y'all see the flack I'm getting ... bunch of crap if you ask me ... this
might embroil me enough to do some serious letter writing to those govmt
agencies that handle this kind of stuff, from anti-trust to freedom of
information in the case of those NASA CDs being shared (and Library of Congress
etc.).  Wonder if the Supreme Court would want to decide whether an "empire"
like CDROM is turning out to be, if it's unruly to force people to buy
particular kinds of computers instead of providing the format in order to
access a legally-bought CD's information.

IBM publishes their standards!  You can find out how RFT documents work and any
company can write their pgms to support that format (an idea I was hoping would
encroach on the people who write OS9 word processors).  It might be that
Compton's, for example, *does* share its database formats with those who've
bought the CD, and how to uncompress the pictures & animation.  That'd be okay!

Well I babbled on long enough - thx for helping & listening!  -- Paul S.