[Kosh]

If the "College Opportunity and Affordability Act of 2007" is ever signed into law.

A massive education bill (747-page PDF) introduced into Congress contains a provision that would force colleges and universities to offer "technology-based deterrents" to file-sharing under the pain of losing all federal financial aid. Section 494 of the College Opportunity and Affordability Act of 2007 is entitled "Campus-Based Digital Theft Prevention" that could have just as easily been called "Motion Picture and Recording Industry Subsidies," as it could force schools into signing up for subscription-based services like Napster and Rhapsody.

Under the terms of the act, which is cosponsored by Rep. George Miller (D-CA) and Rep. Ruben Hinojosa (D-TX), schools will have to inform students of their official policies about copyright infringement during the financial aid application and disbursement process. In addition, students will be warned about the possible civil and criminal penalties for file-sharing as well as the steps the schools take to prevent and detect illicit P2P traffic.

Another present from our bought and paid for congre$$.


http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071111-new-bill-would-turn-colleges-into-copyright-cops.html

[G0atmaster]

and the Congress members, bought and payed for (in part) by the MPAA.

Don't you just love America?

[WMCoolmon]

The MPAA would do far better to instead arrange for deals or educational discounts with schools that would provide incentive for students to purchase music at those schools. Perhaps for every X thousand purchases at a specific school, the band could have a tour scheduled for the school.

Unfortunately at this point, the MPAA has burned so much of whatever goodwill that they had by means of legislation such as this, that it's practically a staple and point of pride for many students to openly flaunt them. But more often than not it's more utilitarian than that; the MPAA just doesn't set the prices of its music at a point that students can reasonably afford them.

Of course, I have the feeling that I'm preaching to the choir here...

[jr2]

Ya... CD costs them like, what, .5 cents to produce, when considering the mass production?  Then they go and charge $12.88 (if you're lucky) - $15.99 for it.

EDIT: Well, maybe I"m exaggerating, and they do have to pay the artists, distributers and middle men... let's say 100 cents ($1) 

[Nuke]

you confuse chemicaly burnable off the shelf el cheapo blank cds, for factory pressed cds, which are slightly more expensive. still with the price of packaging, printing, shipping ect. still you could make a profit off of selling cds for 5 bucks. i remember being able to pick up two albums on a ten and im only 26. i doubt thats due to inflation.

the music industry has intentionally shifted its focus from quality to quantity with some of the artists they promote, yet they still expect us to pay quality prices for it. kids and slutty girls get billion dollar contracts while good bands are forced to play 3 sets a night at a bar for beer soaked tips and a small weekly fee. then theres the bands who completely reject the industry and record/produce/distribute their music without any outside help. now thats talent. with the right skill you could record and mix your album on a standard pc with a good sound card, the gear costing no more than the price of an instrument. and there are plenty of online means to distribute. ive seen bands who distribute directly to ebay or to local music shops. i expect to see more of this in the future.

i say this every time this topic comes up and i say it now. the industry obviously screwed everyone over with the advent of the cd. they found that they could double the price for something which costs less to produce on the grounds that it was new or of better quality. i think that the whole backlash of piracy a fitting punishment for that stunt they pulled in the late 80s and early 90s. they want to keep music as a physical object that you can go to the store and buy. sence they forced us to upgrade out media every few years, records, 8 tracks, cassettes, cds, ect. each one theyve shoved down our throats claiming it was superior. i find it rather ironic that it was we who told them what we wanted (and this goes for software too), and they ignored us and told us we had to use restricted proprietary formats. whatever happened to the customer always being right?

[jr2]

Eh, yes, they'd cost more, except for the fact that they are mass-produced!  Calculate the price per CD then... The only difference between the CDs we burn, and the CDs they burn, is that they are actually etching grooves into a reflective surface with a powerful laser, whereas we are changing the reflectiveness of a chemical layer with a less powerful laser.

Yeah, their machine costs more... but I'm sure it produces a heck of a lot of CDs, faster, and more reliable.  You note that the actual reflective layer, whether it's on a commercial CD or a user-burnable one, is only slightly thicker than paper... it's the underside of the label that gets burned to (both user and pro), the rest is just a piece of plastic it's stuck to.

This is why you can repair a scratch to the underside of any disc by "resurfacing" it with a Disk Dr. or similar tool... which creates a new surface for the reading laser to see through.  However, label-side scratches that penetrate through the label (in other words, you can see a clear spot if you look at it directly) irreparably damage the disc.

[perihelion]

 

I may be misunderstanding you, but it sounds like you are trying to say that mass-produced music disks are "burned" just like the CD-R's you can burn yourself.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Mass-produced discs are stamped from a (usually) glass master pattern; there is no chemical laser burning at all.  The only laser that is involved is the one that is used to put the pattern on the glass master.  Further, the grooves are on the upper surface of the plastic layer, not the metal layer itself.  You need the metal layer for reflection, but that's not where the data is.

[Asuko]

I understand how you can easily make money off of CDs and the fact that the RIAA (MPAA as well) should use more consumer-friendly policies. That's cool.

On the topic at hand, though, I don't really think this law/bill/etc will be effective. Granted, there is a large amount of pirating of movies, tv shows, and, God forbid, music on college campuses (I nearly spelled it 'campusi', haha). The only real reason this happens is because college students want something but have no money or don't want to spend $X for something.

Understand the psychology of a situation and change that. Thus, you change the situation.

[castor]

Further, the grooves are on the upper surface of the plastic layer, not the metal layer itself.  You need the metal layer for reflection, but that's not where the data is.

But isn't it the same thing, if the metal layer is laid on the grooved plastic layer?

[Mika]

It's about time someone actually tries to do something about piracy.

The reason of the high CD price is the consumer himself. The stupid is not the one who asks customer to pay loads of cash, but the customer who pays or coughs up the dough. Personally, I don't believe that the CDs released internationally could be sold much cheaper than say 10 euros. Why? I guess there are lots of hidden costs that one doesn't first think about if not familiar with the process. Most of them are to ensure you get a high quality record in every sense of the word, except musically. The only way to get better music is simply to ignore the bad records that might contain a single hit piece.

The only way to get a reliable picture of the price of the CD is to find out how expensive are the albums released by smaller companies. In general, I'm quite sure you cannot find a new nameless album much less cheaper than half the price of a new album released by a famous artist. The rest of the price of the more famous album is caused by the profit margin of the recording company, transporting companies and the selling companies, in other words there is not a single bad guy who is stealing everybody else's share.

Besides, what's all the fuzz? Why bother using the net and risk getting caught, if USB sticks and hard drives are readily available and are faster to transfer data with?

Mika

[jr2]

Further, the grooves are on the upper surface of the plastic layer, not the metal layer itself.  You need the metal layer for reflection, but that's not where the data is.

But isn't it the same thing, if the metal layer is laid on the grooved plastic layer?

That can't be true... think about that.  The plastic is clear.  Grooves make no difference to its reflectivity.  Unless you're trying to say the the reflective layer is melted and poured into the protective plastic "mold" ???  Don't think so.

Eh, it turns out to be this way: 

Glass mastering

Glass mastering is performed in a class 100 or better clean room or a self-enclosed clean environmnent within the mastering system. If introduced during critical stages of manufacturing, contaminants such as dust, pollen, hair and smoke can render the master unusable. Once completed, a CD will resist effects caused by these contaminants.

During glass mastering, glass is used as a substrate to hold the CD master, hence the name, while it is created and processed. Glass substrates, noticeably larger than a CD, are round plates of glass approximately 240 mm in diameter and 6 mm thick. They often also have a small, steel hub on one side to facilitate handling. The substrates are created especially for CD mastering and one side is polished until it is exceptionally smooth. Even microscopic scratches in the glass will affect CD quality. The extra area on the substrate allows for easier handling of the glass master and prevention of damage to the pit structure when the "father" stamper is removed from the glass substrate.

Once the glass substrate is cleaned using detergents and ultrasonic baths, the glass is placed in a spin coater. The spin coater spins the glass and rinses it first with a solvent and then applies either photoresist or dye-polymer depending on the mastering process. The rotation spreads the photoresist or dye-polymer across the face of the glass in an even coating. The substrate is removed and baked to dry the coating and the glass substrate is ready for mastering.

Mastering is performed by a Laser Beam Recorder (LBR) machine. These use one of two recording methodologies for CD mastering, photo resist and non-photoresist mastering. Photoresist also comes in two variations positive photoresist and negative photoresist.

Photoresist mastering

Photoresist mastering uses a light-sensitive material (photoresist) to create the pits and lands in the CD master.

The laser beam recorder uses a deep blue or ultraviolet laser to write the master. When exposed to the laser light, the photoresist undergoes a chemical reaction which hardens it. The exposed area is then soaked in a developer solution which removes the exposed positive photoresist or the unexposed negative photoresist.

Once the mastering is complete, the glass master is removed from the LBR and it is chemically developed.

Once developing is complete, the glass master must be metalized to provide a surface for the stamper to be formed on.

Non-photoresist (NPR) or Dye-Polymer mastering

Once the glass is ready for mastering, it is placed in a Laser Beam Recorder (LBR). LBRs are capable of mastering at greater than x1 speed, but due to the weight of the glass substrate and the requirements of a CD master they are typically mastered at no greater than 8X playback speed. The LBR uses a laser to write the information, with a wavelength and final lens NA (numerical aperture) chosen to produce the required pit size on the recording. For example, DVD pits are smaller than CD pits, so a shorter wavelength or higher NA (or both) is needed for DVD mastering. When a laser is used to record on the dye-polymer used in NPR mastering, the dye-polmer absorbs a large quantity of the laser energy focused in a precise spot, that vapourises and forms a pit in the surface of the dye-polymer. This pit can be scanned by a red laser beam that follows the cutting beam, and the quality of the recording can be directly and immediatetly assessed, the audio can also be played straight from the glass master as it is being recorded. The pit geometry and quality of the playback can all be adjusted while the CD is being mastered, as the blue writing laser and the red read laser are typically connected via a feedback system to optimise the recording. This allows the dye-polymer LBR to produce very consistent pits even if there are variations in the dye-polymer layer. Another advantage of this method is that pit depth variation can be programmed during recording to compensate for downstream problems such as poor molding. This cannot be done with photoresist mastering because the pit depth is set by the PR coating thickness, whereas dye-polymer pits are cut into a coating that is thicker than the desired pits.

This type of mastering is called Direct Read After Write or DRAW and is the main advantage of some non-photoresist recording systems. Any problems with the quality of the glass substrate, scratches or an uneven coating of the dye-polymer are immediately detected and if required the mastering can be halted, thereby saving time and increasing throughput.

Post-mastering

After mastering, the glass master is baked to harden the developed surface material and it is ready for metalisation. Metalisation is a critical step prior to the electrogalvanic manufacture (electroplating).

The developed glass master is placed in a vapour deposition metaliser which uses a combination of mechanical vacuum pumps and cryopumps to lower the pressure inside a chamber to a hard vacuum. A piece of nickel wire is then heated in a tungsten boat to white hot temperature and the nickel vapour is deposited onto the rotating glass masters. The glass masters are coated with the nickel vapour up to a typical thickness of around 400nm before they are removed.

The glass masters are removed and inspected for stains, pinholes or incomplete coverage of the nickel coating.

Electroforming

Electroforming occurs in "Matrix", the adopted name for the electroforming process area and is still a class 100 cleanroom. The information contained on the metalised glass master is extremely fragile and must be transferred to a more resilient form for use in the injection moulding equipment.

The metalised master is clamped in a conductive plating frame with the information side facing outwards and lowered into a plating tank. The tank contains a nickel salt solution (Nickel Sulfamate) at a specific concentration. The solution is carefully buffered to maintain the pH and detergents are added to maintain a specific surface tension. If the surface tension is too high, the solution cannot flow around the features on the surface sufficiently to deposit nickel evenly. The bath is heated to approximately 40 °C.

The glass master is rotated in the plating tank while a pump circulates the nickel solution over the surface of the master. As the electroforming progresses, nickel is drawn out of the solution galvanically and must be replenished. This is acieved using high purity nickel pellets (99.99% pure) suspended in the solution in non-conductive polypropylene bags called anode bags. The plating solution flows through the bag and over the glass master. The anode bags stop sediment formed during the nickel decomposition from being plated on to the part. The nickel is packed firmly into the bag and forms part of the electric circuit.

A DC current is applied to the glass master travelling through the nickel contained in the anode bags, through the solution, and into the nickel surface of the glass master. The electrons flow in the opposite direction to the current, from the cathode to the anode via the solution. The electrons are stripped from the nickel in the anode bag, travelling through the external circuit before combining with the Nickel ions in the solution at the cathode end and forming metallic nickel on the surface of the glass master.

The current must start off quite low and be increased slowly and evenly to prevent the metalised surface from overheating and burning, like an electrical fuse. As the thickness of the nickel on the glass master increases the current can be increased. After approximately 1 hour the electroforming is complete. Typical stampers are 0.300 mm thick. The part is removed from the tank and the metal part peeled off the glass substrate. The metal part, now called a "father", has the information side as a series of bumps rather than pits. The father is washed with deionised water and other chemicals such as sodium hydroxide or acetone to remove any trace of resist or other contaminant. The glass can be sent for reclaiming, to be cleaned and checked before it is used again. If a defect is detected it will be discarded or sent for recycling.

Once cleaned of any loose nickel and resist, the father is electrolysed, washed and clamped back into a frame and returned to the plating tank. This time the metal part that is grown is the mirror image of the father and is called a "mother". From the mother all the stampers used to manufacture the CDs are made. Mothers can be regrown from Fathers if they become damaged, however if handled correctly, 10 - 20 stampers can be grown from a mother before the quality of the stamper is called into question. Mothers are regrown from the father if it still exists, otherwise a new glass master is made.

If the recording is going to be part of a long production run, the father may be archived, however it is generally cut down with a hyper-accurate hydraulic punch and used as a stamper for moulding runs. Stampers and fathers are the same "polarity", the information surface is made up of a series of bumps. Mothers are the reverse and are made up of pits.

A father, mother, and a collection of stampers (sometimes called "sons") are known collectively as a "family". Fathers and mothers are the same size as a glass substrate, typically 300 μm in thickness. Stampers do not require the extra space around the outside of the program area and they are punched to remove the excess nickel from the outside and inside the information area in order to fit the mould of the injection moulding machine (IMM). The physical dimensions of the mould vary from machine to machine but some typical dimensions are common throughout the industry.

Replication

CD moulding machines are specifically designed high temperature polycarbonate injection moulders. They have an average throughput of 550-900 discs per hour, per moulding line. Clear polycarbonate pellets are first dried at around 130 degrees Celsius for nominally three hours (dependent on which optical grade resin is in use) and are fed via vacuum transport into the one end of the injection moulder's barrel (the feed throat) and are transported to the injection chamber via a large screw inside the barrel. The barrel, wrapped with heater bands ranging in temperature from circa 210 to 320 degrees Celsius melts the polycarbonate. When the mould is closed the screw moves forward to inject molten plastic into the mould cavity. When the mould is full, cool water running through mould halves, outside the cavity, cools the plastic so it solidifies somewhat. The entire process from the mould closing, injection and opening again takes approximately 3 to 5 seconds.

The moulded "disc" (referred to as a 'green' disc, i.e. unprocessed) is removed from the mould by vacuum high-speed robots with vacuum suction caps and moved onto the infeed conveyor or cooling station of the finishing line before metallisation. At this point the discs are clear and contains all the digital information however it cannot be played because there is no reflective layer.

The discs then pass, one at a time into the metaliser, a small chamber operating at approximately 10E-3 Torr vacuum. This process is called 'sputtering'. The metaliser contains a metal "target" made of an alloy of mostly aluminium and some small amounts of other metals. There is a system of a load-lock (like an airlock so that the process chamber can maintain high vacuum as the discs are exchanged. When the disc is rotated into the processing position by the swivel arm in the vacuum chamber, a small dose of argon gas is injected into the process chamber and a 700 Volt DC electrical current at up to 20 kW is applied to the target. This results in a plasma igniting and the aluminium target evaporates onto the disc (anode - cathode reaction). The metal coats the information side of the disc (upper surface) and covers the pits. This metal layer is the reflective surface that can be seen on the reverse of a CD. This thin layer of metal is unstable and will oxidise if it is not protected by a lacquer.

After metalisation the discs pass onto a spin-coater, where UV curable lacquer is dispensed on to the metal layer and spun rapidly to coat the entire disc in a very thin layer (circa 70 nm). After the lacquer is applied it passes under a high intensity UV lamp which cures the lacquer. The lacquer also provides a surface for the screen printing or offset printing ink to adhere to.

Testing

For quality control, both the stamper and the moulded discs are tested before a production run. Samples of the disc (test pressings) are taken during long production runs and tested to ensure consistency of quality. The pressed discs are analyzed on a signal analysis machine. The metal stamper can also be tested on a signal analysis machine which has been adapted for this purpose. The machine will "play" the disc or stamper and will measure various physical and electrical parameters. Errors can be introduced by the moulding process, however both CD and stamper sources of errors can be located and compensated for. If the errors are too severe then the stamper is rejected and must be made again. An experienced operator can interpret the report from the analysis system and optimise the moulding process to make a disc that meets the required Rainbow Book specification (e.g. Red Book for Audio, other colors for other formats).

If no defects are found the CD continues into printing to have a label screen or offset printed on the top of the disc and then onward to be packaged, and passed to distribution.

[Nuke]

you know they had a segment on this on how its made. thing is that pirates found a way to bypass this problem as well as the problem of distribution with the internet. data is easily copied and thus transfered. the consumer wanted what they had before with tapes, the ability to copy and trade and the music industry didnt bother to interfere with that. they could have but they didnt.

we made it clear what we wanted, we wanted to download music for little fee (pirates gave us the option of no fee which many accepted). if you consider that maybe about 2/3s of a cd cost is related to pressing, packaging, and distribution. then we get back to the $5 cd. for a 10 song album thats like 50 cents a track, yet they have the nerve to charge a buck and you have to use a proprietary drm format. where you force normal users to keep track of their rights to media. it just seems that there are a million and one ways they can cheat you out of those rights forcing you to buy your music again.

[Kosh]

Then again the DRM schemes are getting so ridiculous they not only are a huge hassle for legit paying customers (the ones who choose to get ripped off) but also a serious security breech for your PC (enter sony rootkit).