CD-rom longevity

The following appeared on IAMSLIC, (the list of the International
Association of Aquatic and Marine Science Libraries and Information
Centers) (and a great acronym it is)  and appears here without the
knowledge of the author

  Date: 10 Apr 92
  From: Peter Brueggeman <brueggep [at] sandnet__UCSD__EDU>
  To: iamslic [at] ucsd__edu
  Subject: Scinet
  From: A.MACCALL
  To:     iamslic
  Subj:   Dead horse

  At the risk of being tedious, I'd like to submit an addendum to a recent
  exchange on this bulletin board concerning the life expectancy of CD ROM
  products.

  The question is covered in some detail by Steven Lawton ("Being There,"
  Inform, October 1991).  Lawton quotes Mark Anderson, recordable media
  products manager for 3M Corporation, as saying that a compact disc
  should last, under ideal circumstances, for 100 years, but since
  circumstances are never ideal, manufacturers warranty their products for
  "only" 10-30 years.  From other information appearing in this article,
  it seems that other representations quoted here previously have been
  rather simplistic. There are a lot of technical ins and outs.
  Obviously, the bottom line for consumers is how much use you get for the
  money you spend, and that brings up the subject of warranty.

  I called several manufacturers.  The two quoted here are a
  representative sample.

  3M Corporation, Optical Recording Department (612/733-2142):  they
  issued a press release last month according to which they expect their
  product to last a century or more.  They are more conservative when it
  comes to their warranty, which is limited to 25 years.  This means what
  any warranty means: if your 3M compact disc fails within 25 years of
  purchase, they will replace it free of charge.  The warranty terms
  include the effects of oxidation, cosmic rays, and Shirley Maclaine's
  aura.  The warranty is voided by abuse, including storage at
  temperatures higher than 130 degrees F.

  Disk Manufacturing, successors to Philips/DuPont (704/734-4185):  they
  have a press release forthcoming in the next couple of weeks expressing
  a 25- year warranty.  They have no knowledge of accelerated aging caused
  by oxidation.

  Other manufacturers (including Sony and Nimbus) joined 3M and DM in
  saying that their products are subjected to accelerated aging
  environments in the laboratory and that a life expectancy of 25-30 years
  is "conservative."

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 5:49
                 Distributed: Wednesday, April 15, 1992
                        Message Id: cdl-5-49-005
                                  ***