JudyB -

I don't do "portable music" so don't have direct knowledge of the minidisc stuff. I haven't seen complaints in the general news about infection of computers from them.

There have been complaints about "policies" imposed by the music distributors. Several of them have tried to maintain that downloaded music is "rented, not bought" and proposals have been made that systems would permit a specific and limited number of plays, and/or a specific limited time during which it could be played on the machine it downloaded to. The "license" would then expire and the music quits.

Any DRM system that requires you to use a specific "proprietary player" may be assumed to be doing things to your machinery, but it's only a suspicion until someone figures out - and publishes - the details.

Someone once said "people expect others to be about as honest as they are themselves," or something to that effect...

John