COMING ATTRACTIONS

The controversy over digital audiotape (DAT) may be coming to a head in Washington, reports Billboard. The music trade publications says that a bill requiring that all DAT machines imported to the United States be equipped with anticopying technology will be taken up by the Senate copyright subcommittee this week. That means introduction of DAT to the U.S.--hoped for around summer at the earliest--may be delayed. Japanese electronics companies are going to start selling the controversial digital audio tape player in Japan this spring. “DATs are likely to go on sale in March or April,” Heitaro Nakajima, president of the Aiwa Co. told Reuters Monday. The music and CD industries have opposed DAT, which combines the high-quality sound of a compact disc with the home recording capability of a cassette recorder. In December, the Japanese rejected recording-industry demands that “copyguard chips,” which prevent copying at home, be inserted into the players by law.