Us old-time Laserdisc collectors are very familiar with this phenomena, which is called (in those circles) "Laser rot."From: "Larry le Mac" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Changing the subject but only slightly...
What about music CDs ?
I have a huge collection of CDs and I have noticed that rather a worrying lot are beginning to show signs of corrosion and/or fungus (sorry about the spelling...)
Laserdiscs, for those of you still chuckling, may be out of fashion, but actually represent the forerunner of the same technology used in DVDs and CDs -- pitted aluminum sandwiched between plastic, read by a laser.
The problem is caused by two factors: imperfections in the manufacturing process that allow air inbetween the plastic layers, and humidity, which adds H20 to the equation.
One can hear noticable crackling noise, not dissimilar to LPs. What responsibility do record companies have towards the "licence" buyer when it comes to a faulty product ?
Disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer.
I would say the responsibility of the CD maker is the same as that of a record (vinyl) maker to protect you from pops and scratches, ie none. The CD was *promoted* as being virtually indestructible, but was never warranteed with that claim. It is not an issue with the manufacture of the CD, and the defect cannot be shown to be uniform (that is to say, it cannot be proved that any CD stored in the same circumstance will develop the problem). Further, the industry has actively promoted guidelines for the proper care and storage of CDs which should in theory prevent the problem and which you may not have implemented (avoid humidity and bright sunlight, among other caveats).
In short, there's no responsibility on the part of record companies to guarantee (not that they ever have) that your CDs would last forever. This is different than buying one a month or two ago and it develops such a problem, of course.
So now, 20 years on, we discover that CDs do not in fact last forever. Not that shocking, really -- look at similarly-aged Beta and VHS cartridges, old record albums/tapes that have not been meticulously preserved, papers written from your childhood or slide photos taken on Ecktochrome. The reason many of the B&W and colour films from the early part (and even middle) of the last century are in such dire need of restoration is because while film manufacturers were touting the latest advances (and the films certainly did look good), their unstable properties led to rapid deterioration that really wasn't foreseen at the time. IOW, "stuff" happens.
The bright spot (if you want to call it that) is that a lot of this music will be remastered again in SACD or DVD Audio format, offering you yet another opportunity to "upgrade" and repurchase the music you enjoy.
PS. As a collector of 80s music, I have many such CDs going to back to 1983 in my collection, but have not noticed the phenomenon you describe in any more than one or two early-manufacture CDs, and I have at last count over 1,500 such discs.
_Chas_
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