Jeffrey Crews notes:

>>Because of the long anticipated lifespan of a CD-ROM disk (probably 
somewhere around 50 years or so, if you protect it) and because DVD and CD 
technology is so similar, everyone's CD-ROMs should be readable for the 
forseeable [future].<<

The commercial CD-ROM's are expected indeed to have a physical life of 50 to 
100 years. The home-process ones everybody is running around screaming BURN! 
about - sorry, I don't understand this technology very well - have a much 
shorter physical life expectancy.

Which is not to say they'll be easily read. Where you're going to have to go 
to find a CD-ROM reader 50 years from now is anybody's guess (where would you 
go to play back a 1948 wire-recorder recording, for example), and computer 
software provides another level of difficulty.

>>There was a really good article on the difficulties of  "obsolete media" I 
read a while back. If I can find the link I'll post it here.<< I'd like to 
see this!

Bob Richmond
Samurai Pathologist
Knoxville TN