The subject of CD duplication can be considered a legitimate, everyday occurrence; or something that is, at best, not quite right. After all, the CD (or, to give it its full name “compact disc”) is nothing but the messenger in so much as it is a 120 millimeter diameter disk of 1.2 millimeter thick polycarbonate plastic on which to store digital optical data. Blank disks are, effectively, duplicates of each other. However, once data has been stored on a disk the questions over intellectual property rights start to raise their heads if you copy that information from one disc to another.
CD technology was introduced in 1982 through joint collaboration between Phillips and Sony and they were intended for musical storage; to replace the gramophone disk where sound was extracted through a needle running through a groove. 200 billion CD’s had been sold by 2007.
Not Only Music
The scope for digital optical data storage soon lead to CD’s being used to store both computer data and digital files including images and video. Once people started to buy blank discs on which to place files from their personal computers; it was but a short step to writing a CD duplicate of another one. A person could easily buy one copyrighted audio CD and make copies for all their friends. It also became very easy to make duplicates of computer program installation discs.
Legitimate CD Duplication
There are many very real reasons for wanting to replicate your own CD data. You could be a musician wanting something a little better than a “demo tape” to get the music companies’ attention; or an amateur movie maker – even a movie souvenir for the guests at your daughter’s wedding. Additionally, CD’s can be useful advertizing tools for many businesses. Things like product catalogs and instructional videos can be prepared on computers and then transferred to CD format in as many numbers as the needs require.
Are CD’s Going The Way Of Gramophone Records?
At this point in time; there is probably no hard and fast answer to this question. CD’s can only store a relatively small amount of data and require a player. Take the music example; around ¾ of an hour is the maximum that can be stored on a CD; whereas many hours of music can be stored and played back from an MP3 player or similar USB storage drive. CD is still the main distribution media for the music companies but CD sales have declined dramatically in recent years.
For private or advertizing use, CD DUPLICATION remains a popular choice since it is a near certainty that everyone being given a copy will have something to play it on. People needing such a service can still find it at Dataworks Inc in midtown Manhattan.
