Well, it wasn't "the record companies" as a whole. The creative nomad player was during the same period and had no such limitations. Sony, being a record compa

Well, it wasn't "the record companies" as a whole. The creative nomad player was during the same period and had no such limitations. Sony, being a record company and a hardware company, limited their players in this way. And basically paved the way for other companies to take over the market. Sad because their walk-man was basically the standard before, and sony makes some good hardware.