GM> I have a collection of old data sheets going back about 45 years,
  > all of them still 100% readable, and several data books that are
  > even older, also quite readable.

GM> Can anyone claim that sort of life for a CD-ROM?

GM> Or will anyone still have a CD-ROM drive in 40 years? And the
  > software to read the data?

Hard to say. But can you pack your entire databook/datasheet collection 
into a CD wallet, or load it on a hard drive to serve it on your network?


It wouldn't surprise me at all if devices to read CD-ROMs were 
still available, though perhaps rare, in 40 years. Mainly because such 
a huge volume of material has been produced in this medium. Especially 
when you also take music CD's into account. Add to that the longevity of 
pressed CD's, and it seems to me entirely plausible that there will 
still be enough demand to keep a few readers available in 40 years, even 
if the recordable discs don't last that long.

And consider how long other popular recording media have been around. 
Like records and cassette tapes, both of which have examples of very 
old intact recordings, and players that can still be purchased new.

The first CD I ever bought was Thomas Dolby's "Blinded by Science" in 
1983. It still plays flawlessly. So I know a pressed audio CD can last 
at least 20 years. Given that it shows absolutely no degradation that 
I can discern, another 20 wouldn't surprise me at all. But that, of 
course, remains to be seen. It's not the oldest CD in existence, but 
it's close enough to the beginning to be as good a representative of CD 
longevity as you can find. I have a few others that were purchased only 
a few months later. Without exception, those also still play flawlessly.

The only audio CD's I've ever had not play flawlessly are ones that 
either have been damaged, or that were defective from the start. 
And one fairly recent copy protected one that consistently has problems 
in one of my audio CD players, my DVD player, all of my CD-ROM drives, 
and intermittently has problems in every player I've tried it in. I 
consider that to be in the "defective from the start" category. The 
funny thing is that although the copy protection interfered with normal 
use, it did not prevent copying. It did take longer than usual though. 
The ripping program seemed to re-read some parts of the disc over and 
over, behaving similar to a dirty or mildly scuffed disc. The CD-R copy 
plays fine in everything I've tried it in.

A copy protection scheme that makes copying the only viable way to get 
the product to work properly. Idiots.


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