Yes, it is true.

Earlier Finale versions came with a “free” Lite version (= with limited* capabilities) of SmartScore that could do Music OCR on an optical scan.

You can still use SmartScore or other Music OCR with the latest Finale version, but you have to buy it separately.

*) Some of the limitations in SmartScore Lite:

Neither recognition of articulations, hairpins, double barlines, repeat barlines, nor text.

Smallest note value a 32nd note, and a maximum of 1 augmentation dot.

SmartScore X2 Pro is available for half price from MM. Click on the Recommended Products tab.

https://store.makemusic.com/Store/

This is lets you scan, edit and export as MusicXML.

I would also like to chime in here and shed light on another useful product from Musitek (the company that makes SmartScore that was previously included in its Lite form in Finale) called Music-to-XML. It still incurs an extra cost, a little less though, and it is one of their newer products.

Also, if you are curious for more information about the choice to remove the Lite version of scanning from Finale, check out this blog post by our VP of Product Strategy, Fred Flowerday.

Hope this helps!

So it would appear that MakeMusic has removed these features to alleviate conflicts with copyright and musicians rights.  Is it a potential concern that SmartScore Pro (and other scanning programs) could also be eliminated in the future for the same reasons?

Also, thank you all for this information.  I will pass this along to my staff members with appreciation to all of you. 

There are some differences. Music-to-XML does not allow editing before import into Finale. SmartScore Pro does. 

As to to the future of music scanning, you'd have to ask the companies involved. My opinion is that the genie left the bottle a couple of decades ago and no one is going to put it back.