Paper-based optical discs sound great in theory, but what's the reality going to be like?

The Egyptians are often credited with the first paper-making in history -- although what they were making was papyrus, from which we get the word paper, not actual wood flax paper, something that the Chinese are credited with coming up with. Paper's a great little storage medium; it's flexible, easy to write on, easy to decode from and relatively resistant to the effects of weather if you remember to store it in a nice dry cave somewhere. Our paper consumption is still staggeringly high worldwide, despite the idea that the Net, cheap CD-Rs and television would lead to the death of the printed word. It's also staggering to see what we humans are capable of making out of paper, from delicate little origami swans to optical storage discs. Optical storage discs, are, however, a whole new level of clever tinkering.

Late last week, Sony announced that it had been working for some time with a Japanese printing company on a rather interesting spin on what's meant to be the next generation of optical storage, Blu-ray discs. The interesting Sony spin is that the discs they're proposing to make would store around 25GB of data onto a disc that's predominantly made out of paper.

Aside from the sheer 'whoa! That's clever, that is!' side of things, a paper optical storage medium has all sorts of interesting knock-on effects. The most obvious thing about a paper-based optical disc is durability. The easy comparison to make is that of the current available generation of optical storage, DVD. On the consumer side, for example, I make it a habit to never purchase ex-rental DVD movies, even if the price is really tempting. That's simply because I've seen too many discs that I've rented covered in scratches, smudgy fingerprints and the odd trace of what I really hope is just Vegemite. On a paper-based disc, especially one that they're even touting as secure precisely because you can destroy it, that kind of abuse doesn't just become a cleaning chore; it speaks directly to the destruction of data.

There's an up side to that: if you're in a business where your data really needs to be secure; you can merrily burn discs in the knowledge that destroying the data is as simple as tearing a page in half. It'd also greatly simplify a chore that many IT support people dread; carrying around a heavy spindle of optical discs. That's presuming, of course, that the paper discs are lighter, and that you can hold off on the urge to punch holes in them and stick them in a ring binder.

Depending on how the discs are created, it also opens up all sorts of possibilities for being able to write on the discs themselves. Over the years, I've lost track of the number of CD pens I've purchased, and as of this writing, I couldn't tell you where any of them are. As a result, the concept of an easily markable optical media is terribly appealing to me.

Paper (or indeed, any reasonably renewable and yet easily destructible) DVDs also bring the issue of software (and other IP) licensing to the forefront. We've all been in the situation where a software CD, DVD movie or audio CD simply won't play any more due to scratches, coffee stains or an inadvertent encounter with the family dog; a paper DVD would just be a much more chewable toy in that scenario. If, however, your software licence said something to the effect of "you don't own this software" (which most of them do) "but you can get replacements for the discs as and when you need them" then I'd be in favour of that. Sure, you'd probably have to pay a minor restocking fee, but that's got to be better than stumping up for the full retail price all over again.

The specifics on the creation process of the discs isn't yet clear, and as such I can only hope that, as appearances would have it, that the discs themselves are less damaging to whatever it is of the world's environment we have left than producing a ton of plastic-based discs. Certainly, Sony's claiming that the discs will use less raw material than traditional optical media, and, certainly, there's always the hope that they'll be able to use a certain quantity of recycled paper in the production process. We can but live in hope.

Finally, there's one huge advantage to the paper DVD that comes to mind.

When I get advertising or software paper DVDs on the cover of magazines or through my letterbox, I can simply fold them into paper aeroplanes with "return to sender" written on the side. Who ever thought junk mail could be fun?

What do you think? Are destructible optical discs a good idea, or would they just serve to irritate? Talkback to me below!