[John Robinson]

I can see this technology in the form of credit card-size smart cards. The ability to completely control access to the recording should have the RIAA salivating.

Smart cards can be made nearly impossible to hack--see DirecTV, et al. And with the DMCA, hacking it would be illegal, NO MATTER what the intent.

Also, smart cards can be married to specific players-- conceivably you would need to buy the White Album for the home player as well as the car player. Heck, the access method is programmable, there could be all types of control mechanisms implemented. And since we have this smart card reader interface, maybe instead of buying media, it would instead be distributed freely (or very cheaply)-- but you'd have to pay to listen. Just insert your Music Choice (tm) card and a number of credits will be deducted. Yippie. (Damnit, I need to patent this. :-)

I've always liked the idea of credit card-size media, but I'm afraid the next generation media is going to be down right draconian.

[discostu]

And meanwhile credit cards are shrinking, or at least they were, haven't seen a commercial for a keychain credit card in a while. Eventually we're simply going to have to shrink people so they can more easily manipulate their shrunken world.

I'm still not too hep on downloaded stuff. Even with the new world of shrunken cover art I still like buying a thing. Of course I was very slow to convert from the LP to the tape, and slower still to convert to the CD. Something no one will ever be able to accuse me of is being an early adopter.