What we are probably missing here is the usual problem...big business. "Big business" is perpetually in pursuit of selling us something that requires "return purchases". The days of making a product that one buys and uses till it wears out (a mop, for example) are being replaced by items that require "maintenance (mops with squirting cleaners and replacable sheets/pads, for example). Among the first to do this was the diaper industry who successfully convinced the masses they needed to get rid of a cloth diaper that lasted the entire life of a baby and use throwaway "Pampers"...the concern on their part being more about having repeat purchases than convenience. I suggest we COULD have permanent "forever" CD-Rs but that would cut back on sales as people ponder the need to re-burn their "libraries" every few years to make sure they had them. But, why make a CD that lasts a lifetime when we can make one that doesn't? (and therefore require the purchase of more CDs)