Longevity of CD-R (was RE: Preserving Newspaper.)

From: Eric Smith <eric_at_brouhaha.com>
Date: Mon Nov 11 04:56:00 2002

Tothwolf <tothwolf_at_concentric.net> wrote:
> You can't always trust that data though. Its unfortunately common for
> some CD-R manufacturers to sell off old glass masters to budget CD-R
> companies, who (obviously) can't change the data (that would require
> creating a whole new glass master).

I can't imagine that any reputable CD-R manufacturers would sell off
the masters. In fact, I would assert that selling off the old masters
is sufficient cause to consider a CD-R manufacturer to be disreputable.
The reason you stop using a master and start using a new one is that
the old one is worn out. Making masters isn't that expensive; it would
be a stupid place to try to economize on the manufacturing process, but
I can believe that some companies might do it.

A more serious cause for concern would be if some of the manufacturers
deliberately falsified the ATIP data to counterfeit a different
manufacturer's ID. I haven't heard of that happening, and I'd expect
that any reputable manufacturer upon discovering such behavior from
a competitor would take legal action.

As a data point, I have NEVER had any trouble with any CD-R that has
the Taiyo Yuden manufacturer ID. If I've gotten any conterfeit ones,
they're good enough that I didn't notice. On the other hand, if
anyone is counterfeiting CMC Magnetics discs, they're doing just as
bad a job as CMC.
Received on Mon Nov 11 2002 - 04:56:00 GMT