John - The issue of physical access to the data on *SM tapes was
       addressed a few months ago by a developer responding to a
posted question on security.  The format of the data on *SM tapes is
deemed proprietary and is undisclosed.  Whether or not someone might
be able to interpret the data, physical access to the tapes nees to
be controlled by site physical security.  Legitimate physical access
in case of inadvertent deletion, where recovery is imperative, would
have to be addressed through IBM channels, as in contracting TSM
support personnel to try to recover what data could be identified
and retrieved from logically deleted volumes.
     Richard Sims, BU