Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!wuarchive!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!tank!uwvax!umn-d-ub!umn-cs!ux.acs!lrccon
From: lrccon@ux.acs.umn.edu (Philip Arny)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: Why are CD-ROMs so expensive?
Message-ID: <1001@ux.acs.umn.edu>
Date: 29 Dec 89 14:21:23 GMT
References: <829@tijc02.UUCP> <21517@mimsy.umd.edu>
Reply-To: lrccon@ux.acs.umn.edu (Philip Arny)
Distribution: na
Organization: University of Minnesota, ACSS
Lines: 9

A note about CD-ROM costs: what you are buying with that large sum
is NOT the physical CD-ROM, the cost of mastering & pressing it, or
even the cost of writing the retrieval software (though all of those
are part of the cost); what you are buying is the INFORMATION on the
disk, collected, collated, and indexed for ease of access.  Go ask
a librarian how much Chemical Abstracts or the Science Citation Index
costs, if you want a shock.  Makes most CD-ROMs look like pocket change.

Philip Arny