CompuServe Messages

As Kathy says, Photo CD is a proprietary format, so it's up to Kodak to enforce it. I was commenting on the fact that Kodak hasn't done anything to enforce it in the case of the Corel discs (though my knowledge here may be out of date). Make of it what you will… Photo Theatre does everything according to the Photo CD/Portfolio format, and therefore produces discs that run on Kodak Photo CD players as well as PCs and CD-I players. It is in our interest to follow the format and ensure that compatibility, so we do. Likewise, it is in our interest to make standard ISO 9660 discs with our other software, and we do. However, when customers demand some departure from standards, for example the possiblity to make ISO discs containing filenames which don't strictly adhere to the ISO filenaming restrictions, we allow for that, while also giving them the possibility to make discs that do adhere strictly to the standard. We also warn them that when they depart from the standard they run the risk that their disc will not work on some systems. We all agree that standards are desirable and should be followed, and probably if the entire industry adhered strictly to the Orange Book for recordable CDs _and_ reading them back on CD-ROM drives, we wouldn't be seeing all the troubles people are having. But nothing except market pressure can enforce a standard, and when neither the manufacturers nor the consumers completely understand the standards, that's not likely to happen. Ciao, D'