December 7, 2001
The IDDA - the International Disc Duplication Association which was established as a forum and a voice for those involved in the growing service of duplicating onto CD-R - is involved in the contentious matter of both patent compliance and unreasonable royalty fees.
The IDDA has members in the USA, Australia, Asia and Europe, including organizations that duplicate, label and pack CDs, together with those who manufacture and sell automatic disc duplicating machines, discs, labels and supplies.
As major users of media and products covered by patents and copyright on which fees are payable, disc duplicators, and particularly members of the International Disc Duplicating Association are expected to act with high ethical standards.
Members of the IDDA have been asked to assist in the enforcement of these rights in any legal way, by helping the patent holders such as Philips identify possible non-respecters of these rights. The IDDA is planning to publish on its website www.discdupe.org a list of licensed CD-R manufacturers, as well as a warning list of disc brands that are being targeted by Philips. Philips has warned that it can claim unpaid license fees from distributors and duplicators, so this list will help our members avoid being targeted by Philips.
The IDDA encourages members to respect and encourage others to respect proprietary rights. The IDDA believes that all users of CD-R should be using media on which royalties have been paid by the manufacturer, with everyone on the same level playing field; not only because this is ethical and legal, but also because the end users could be liable for unpaid royalties
Says Bernhard Kirschner, chairman of the IDDA: “CD-R patents have about 10 years to go, while within a few years patents on replicated media (stamped discs) will have expired in most countries.
The IDDA believes that CD duplicating onto CD-R will soon be competing with replicating in an bigger way, especially in short runs, (currently up to a 1,000) but growing with better and faster duplicators to runs of 10,000 plus. Many duplicating services can already produce 100s of discs per hour onto CD-R, without the high setup costs for glass masters and stampers and expensive injection molding equipment.
Replicators will be duplicating, and duplicators will be doing bigger jobs.
One main obstacle to this growth would then be the difference in royalties between CD-R media and replicated media.
IDDA members, as users of CD-R, want this differential reduced, and the IDDA is striving for a fairer royalty fee on CD-R. The present royalty fee charged by the patent holders, mainly Philips of 6 cents per disc, where the cost of manufacture is 16 cents per disc, is a surcharge of 37%.
The IDDA, believing in a level playing field, believes that in the future a levy of a royalty of 37% on CD-R compared to replicated media makes for a very slippery uneven slope.”
Unless the IDDA is successful in lowering the royalties on CD-R, the potential for the growth of the duplicating industry will be limited.
The IDDA will have a booth at REPLItech USA in LA, and will be holding public discussions on royalties, and other matters of interest to duplicators such as definitions, specifications, standards, and manufacturers’ support, on Wednesday afternoon from 3.00pm on February 13, 2002 during the exhibition.
For more information and an IDDA membership application form, see www.discdupe.org, or contact Bernhard Kirschner at discdupe@hotmail.com.
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For list of members, see www.discdupe.org and select the button “MEMBERS LIST”
For more information, please contact Bernhard
Kirschner,
Chairman, International Disc Duplicating Association
Sydney, Australia
Phone +61 2 9954 9885
Fax +61 2 9922 4801
discdupe@hotmail.com
Or Jeff Starfield,
CD\Works, Boston,
Phone 617 782-5884
jbs@cdworks.com