2001connections-article0014 Keep all your ruined CD-R’s, or "coasters".

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2001connections-article0014
Keep all your ruined CD-R’s, or “coasters”.

Store your ruined CD-R’s in a box and label it “coasters for future reference”. Also, retain all your store receipts. Keeping these items makes the most sense in jurisdictions which impose a blank media recording levy on these products. This surcharge may very well be hidden in the retail price of the recordable CD’s. I don’t know how many jurisdictions in the world collect this type of blank media recording levy. At the time of last editing of this article, I am only aware of one. Perhaps there are more.
Yes, hold on to your ruined CD-R’s because one day, hopefully, you might be able to regain some or most of the money, if any, which you were forced to pay as a levy as part of the retail price of new recordable media. The original premise of exacting a toll at the retail level may have appeared reasonable enough: to compensate artists, mostly musicians, for revenue lost as a result of computer users copying their material onto recordable and portable media, including optical discs, mostly CD-R’s and DVD’s. However, at least 3[three] major problems come to light with a payment schedule of this type:

[get the joke? come to light, optical media -- HA! HA! .......... oh, forget it]

    [[1]] The amount of the levy. If this imposition comprises more than 25% of the retail selling price of a blank disc, then this rate could arguably be deemed as exorbitant and draconian. For example, due to the equation here, that the manufacturer of the media probably gets a lower $ amount than this fee. And, to put it bluntly, the money collected via this surcharge goes to those parties who had just about no part at all in manufacturing the blank discs, typically CD-R’s.
    [[2]] If the levy is imposed on a universal or near-universal basis, such application seems to imply that practically all recordable media is used to duplicate copyrighted artistic material, usually music, film productions, and so on. Clearly, this assumption is wrong. For example, a large office might use substantial quantities of blank CD-R’s to make backup copies of their own documents. This backup routine might have little or nothing to with copying artistic material of others. But if this tariff is imposed anyway, we may have a big problem here.
    [[3]] What about ruined discs? Obviously, such worthless items will not be employed to make a useable recording of any type of material. Ruined discs should most easily qualify for a refund of the levy, in my humble, subjective opinion. Possibly even a refund of sales tax, who knows.

My prediction since the time of first composing this article, November 2004. In jurisdictions which impose a blank media recording levy, class action lawsuits will seek to reimburse consumers of new recordable media, at least partially, for the money they paid for this tariff. Lawsuit against whom: mostly against the recipients of the levy, I suppose. Let the lawyers figure out these details. In many cases, this toll should be refunded, and perhaps should not even have been collected in the first place.
    Yes, ruined CD-R’s could serve as a basis of several forms of refunds. Refund of sales tax. Refund of recording levy, if one exists in your area. Perhaps the list could even include a possible reimbursement of the price paid by consumers to suppliers of buggy recording software, assuming it could be proven that this software caused or contributed to ruining the recordable disc. So keep these discs in a box or other suitable form of storage, instead of discarding them.

[get the joke? disc, disc-ard, discarding -- HA! HA! .......... oh, forget it]

End of
2001connections-article0014
Keep all your ruined CD-R’s, or “coasters”.

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