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From: toddpw@tybalt.caltech.edu (Todd P. Whitesel)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: CD's
Message-ID: <1990Feb20.011149.8195@spectre.ccsf.caltech.edu>
Date: 20 Feb 90 01:11:49 GMT
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CD's are cheaper for high volume production. Their fixed costs (setup, tooling,
getting the data organized, etc) are pretty high, but can be spread out over
lots of CDs if many are produced.

PC Boards have the same problem, because they also require "tooling up" to
make the first, but after that you just crank the production line.

For small scale production nothing beats cassettes in terms of cost.

The reason CDs are so expensive is because people are willing to pay the price
that is asked for them, because of their inherent advantages (less noise, no
degradation, etc). The reason DAT's have had such trouble entering our country
is because the CD producers lobby that piracy will ruin their business. (so why don't they just sell blank DAT's as well? they'd still make a killing)

Here, as in the software industry, piracy would not be a problem if we
fixed the distribution system so things could cost what people would happily
pay and not bother pirating.

Todd Whitesel
toddpw @ tybalt.caltech.edu