

Edison the Inventor, Edison the Showman - hhm
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/11/business/yourmoney/11edison.html

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altay
Inventor of the light bulb, phonograph... and DRM!

 _Edison was adamant that Edison recordings would be played only on Edison
phonographs. His competitors, Victor and Columbia, shared the same playback
technique, etching a laterally cut groove that sent the needle moving
horizontally as the record played. Their recordings could be played on one
another's machines. Edison, however, adopted his own design, a groove that
varied vertically, called at the time a "hill and dale" cut. An adapter
permitted Victor records to be played on an Edison Disc Phonograph, but Edison
forbade the sale of an attachment that permitted his records to be played on
competitors' machines._

