DataPlay
DataPlay is an optical disc system developed by DataPlay Inc. and released to the consumer market in 2002. Using very small (32mm diameter) disks enclosed in a protective cartridge storing 250MB per side, DataPlay was intended primarily for portable music playback, although it could also store other types of data, using both pre-recorded disks and user-recorded disks (and disks that combined pre-recorded information with a writable area). It would also allow for multisession recording. DataPlay Inc. was founded in 1998 by Steve Volk. The company's namesake optical disc won the CES Best of Show award in 2001.
| Company type | Incorporation |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1998 |
| Founder | Steve Volk |
| Headquarters | Longmont, Colorado, USA |
Key people | Bill Almon, Jr., CEO and President Jeff Roberts, CFO |
| Products | DataPlay Engine DataPlay 500MB Optical Media |
Number of employees | ~30 (2006) |
| Website | www.DataPlay.com (defunct) |
| Optical discs |
|---|
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. Dataplay's DRM system was one of the reasons behind its attractiveness to the music industry. 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.