How Do You Irradiate A DVD To Death?
The answer…
Submit a DVD full of your photos to the Library of Congress through the U.S. Postal Service.
Today I received a letter from the United States Copyright Office that a relatively recent copyright filing could not be processed because the U.S. Postal Service irradiated my U.S. Priority Mail envelope containing a letter and DVD to the point of oblivion.Â
I understand the need be security conscious after the 2001 Anthrax scare, but to irradiate mail to the point that a CD or DVD will not work!? That’s a first I’ve heard of that happening. I’ve mailed dozens of CD’s and DVD’s full of photographs in past Copyright filings with the Library of Congress since 2001, but this is the first time I’ve had a submission experience problems because of being irradiated by the USPS. Something just seems off with this. See my souvenir letter below.
Perhaps this is part of the campaign to get people to use the online submission process versus mailing in paper based filings. Apparently the increase in fees wasn’t enough of a deterrent.Â
I’m really trying not to bring politics into this, but didn’t the accused Anthrax suspect die in August of 2008? Is it really necessary to keep this going to the point that the government can’t do business? Â Does this mean that President Obama isn’t a Netflix subscriber?
On a serious note in case something unexpected were to happen I do burn duplicate copies of my Copyright submissions. Resubmitting the damaged DVD won’t be a problem because of this practice. I just never expected I’d have to resubmit a DVD because of being irradiated to death. What happened to the good old days when packages just vanished and resurfaced 40 years later?
Technorati Tags: Library of Congress, Copyright, Irradiate, Irradiation, 9/11, National Security, Anthrax
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Unfortunately this is not that uncommon. To avoid simply use Fed Ex.
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Yup, WAY TOO Common…
I get stuff outta their hands ASAP as a Rule of Thumb.
Maybe ’tis the Time to use the LOC © online UPload
and just burn yourself the backup as usual?
I hear it’s cheaper, too…
At least it’s outta their hands..
Sorry to hear about this inconvenience, Jim.
At least you DO have the Backup DVD and it’s NOT
Mercury Retrograde….LOL
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Unfortunately, sending via FedEx won’t help – - I believe they are sending all courier, FedEx, and UPS mail to the irradiation centers now, as well. Short of showing up there in person and handing it to them, it’s gonna get the radiation.
The discs are generally killed by heat — the entire point of the irradiation is to heat the contents enough that any biological agents are killed. Congressmen have reported getting mail with singed edges and photographs that are bubbled and warped beyond recognition. Stupid, yeah.
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Hopefully you got a refund Jim. I need to make a submission myself.
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Jim Reply:
July 14th, 2009 at 11:44 am
No refund. They want me to resubmit another copy of the DVD… no extra charge other than shipping. I’m not sure what difference that will make considering my next DVD could suffer the same fate. Perhaps there is a market in oven/microwave safe DVD/CD cases.
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wow, I can’t believe they actually did that. Good luck sending in another.
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Bummer … happened to me a couple of years ago.
I got the same treatment: You lost the lottery, so you get to go burn another CD/DVD, and eat the shipping cost/time to redo it all.
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Jim Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
LOL while misery loves company I’m sorry to hear that you had a similar experience.
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Um… haven’t they been accepting uploads of files for a while now? Why still send DVDs?
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Jim Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
I had used their online submission sometime ago and was less than impressed. I tend to submit large quantities of files so even with the fee increases it has been of greater value to me (preserving my time) to send in DVDs. That may not hold true if I have to submit oven proof packages. I’ll likely give the online submission process another run.
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That is crazy Jim!
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Jim Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 4:40 pm
You’re telling me LOL! I was excited to get the letter thinking it was a new copyright certificate. *insert family feud buzzer sound here* Wrong! I can only hope that the next one makes it through with out being fried, baked, zapped, microwaved or bar-b-q’d.
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