He was about as good a renaissance-man catch as Sony could have hoped for.
A manufacturer doesn't have to build a managed copy maker into their device. It is certainly possible to still build players that look just like DVD players, where you put a disc in the slot, it plays that disc, and you're good to go.
Sony has never been good in its thinking about how quality can be diluted. That was their problem with Beta over VHS. VHS wasn't as high-quality as Beta, and they just presumed consumers would go with the best quality. It's the same thing with flat-panel displays.