Diamonds & the RIAA 739
eaglebtc writes "After reading the previously-posted article on cdfreaks.com about the rapid erosion of cheap CDR's, I found another equally scintillating write-up about the economics of music CDs written by Richard Menta, founder of MP3 Newswire. Sure, we've all heard the whining about how CDs are so expensive, but Mr. Menta takes a unique perspective on the issue by comparing the RIAA to DeBeers. He argues that both companies control distribution of products in their respective markets with an iron fist, and by so doing can artificially raise prices. Coincidentally, the bubble is beginning to burst in both markets: the RIAA is fighting against the uprisings of P2P software, and the diamond cartel's lawyers are losing sleep over the $5 diamonds produced in a lab."
The names may change, but (Score:5, Funny)
If that doesn't work, I predict that your fiance will be expecting a new 'Mars rock' ring, and NASA will finally be able to finance that trip to the moon they've been faking^W talking about.
Re:The names may change, but (Score:5, Informative)
There are much prettier stones available, many with cool characteristics [gemstone.org]
Re:The names may change, but (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:The names may change, but (Score:5, Insightful)
Wait... you mean that you'd marry a girl like that?
Damn.
For the record, my wife doesn't even like diamonds.
Re:The names may change, but (Score:3, Insightful)
What^H^H^H^H One thing a woman wants is to feel that her man values her more highly than all other things. And she needs a proof of this that is unambiguous and readily demonstrable to her friends/family. Jewelry serves this function well, since (1) the man gets no utility from it, (2) it not a dual-use item that might have been bought for its practical value, (3) it is portable.
A second thing a woman wants, in addition to knowing her man places a high
Re:The names may change, but (Score:4, Funny)
Re:The names may change, but (Score:5, Insightful)
Try any of the following:
1) Local chapter of ACLU
2) Local Amnestry group
3) Local artist or arts school
4) Any town with a healthy population of liberals
It really says something about Slashdot that a moderater scored you as 'Insightful.' Such a sad, sad group of boys.
Oo! Oo! Or you could try explaining your position to your fiancee. I recall learning somewhere that women are people who are as intelligent as guys. Assuming you're an intelligent guy, one would hope your fiancee is at least as intelligent as you are, and would share your concerns over blood diamonds.
Re:The names may change, but (Score:5, Interesting)
He then recounts the time he told this to one of his female friends. He describes her as one of the nicest people you could ever meet. After telling her that the soldiers/work masters actually cut off the arms of small children, she made a sad face and said, "Both arms?"
That shows you the power of diamonds.
Re:The names may change, but (Score:4, Funny)
Maybe it's just me, but I assumed the original poster also wanted his potential fiancee to be intelligent and personable.
Re:The names may change, but (Score:5, Funny)
And stop eating too! (Score:4, Funny)
This is gonna feel good... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:The names may change, but (Score:4, Funny)
Would get a little heavy after a while.
Re:The names may change, but (Score:3, Insightful)
It's how alike they have to be before money becomes the deciding factor that measures the difference between a mercenary and a saint.
Re:The names may change, but (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:The names may change, but (Score:5, Interesting)
We knew eachother for years before we got married. We are best friends, and jewelry is hardly high on our list of priorities. We'd rather spend the money on a dishwasher or furniture, anyway.
How is that so hard? Romantic idealism is overrated, IMO. I think long-term happiness is more easily obtained by fiscal responsibility, for example, than credit-supported fantasy. Perhaps I sound like an old fart, but that's just how I am.
Re:The names may change, but (Score:3, Insightful)
If there's a trust boundary in a relationship, I'd consider that a warning sign. I know people who seriously say things like "never get married without a pre-nup", but I never quite understood this. Getting joint accounts and dual-name titles on property is just a no-brainer for me (it makes a will much easier...it also helps keep nursing homes from robbing me blind if I ever end up in one). If a marriage with a pre-nuptual agreem
Re:The names may change, but (Score:3, Informative)
Re:The names may change, but (Score:3, Informative)
As an aside, alexandrite turns a sweet orangish-red under a black light. Very cool.
Dogbert at the jewellery store (Score:5, Funny)
Store Owner: These are not just ordinary rocks! They're precious and virtually priceless diamonds!
Dogbert: That's only because you chose to restrict the supply.
Store Owner: Ok Ok you figured us out. I'll give you a bag of diamonds if you'll keep quiet.
(Dogbert walking away with a bag of diamonds)
Dogbert: Well now I'm a party to this dirty little secret...
How *could* it work? (Score:3, Insightful)
What will probably happen is that lab-grown diamonds will still be very scarce. The people making them are being very secretive about their processes and even their identities. They could sell their diamonds for $6 or $6,000, what do you think they'll do?
Maybe in 10 years or so the processes will be widespread enough to kill the market.
Re:How *could* it work? (Score:5, Insightful)
International collusion (Score:5, Insightful)
They don't need it. They control more of the diamond market than OPEC does oil, but look what OPEC is able to do. To control a market, you need three things:
1. You are the largest player in the market, with a high total market share,
2. You have a large oversupply of the product,
3. You have the ability to crash prices by releasing your oversupply.
So what happens if someone mining diamonds were to challenge de Beers? de Beers would make sure that their network of retailers don't do business with that producer. They'd also release some of their capacity to temporarily drop prices. That would put that producer out of business.
The artificial boys are different, because they can make stuff cheaper even than de Beers can get it out if they dropped their prices as much as possible, probably.
What will probably happen is that lab-grown diamonds will still be very scarce. The people making them are being very secretive about their processes and even their identities. They could sell their diamonds for $6 or $6,000, what do you think they'll do?
That's true. Both have a vested interest in keeping prices high. What *should* happen is they should get a deal together where they divide the pie, with neither side stepping over it. Kind of like OPEC. If they did it in the US, it would be collusion, but they don't have to do that. We'll see.
Re:strong-arm power (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm a chemist, I know what they are, but "fake" is four letters and "synthetic" is 9. I give the average slashdotter credit for the intelligence to discern the difference, though perhaps that's overstating things.
On the day when 'authentic' diamond merchants are frantically shipping their stones with a crappy little scrap of paper with a hologram on it, like an Franklin Mint ripoff item, life will be better for common sense people.
They already laser-inscribe the more valuable ones with a serial number. The easy bit for the manufacturers of fake diamonds is going for the small-diamond market. As the article says, anything under 1/5 carat isn't worth verifying. And you can make a $10,000 diamond-encrusted bracelet with a bunch of diamonds that are, individually, not worth enough to check. And that will be a nightmare for de Beers to control.
What to get that special someone (Score:5, Funny)
Labor Of Love (Score:5, Insightful)
If guys start wedding gals using cheap diamonds, then chicks will just find a new tool with which to implement Expensive Labor of Love strategy.
Re:Labor Of Love (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Labor Of Love (Score:5, Funny)
misunderstanding... (Score:5, Funny)
"Fuck off, loser" doesn't mean they are ready and willing to accept your seed(ling).
Re:Labor Of Love (Score:5, Insightful)
But then that's just me (and pretty much anybody else I know who didn't grow up in the US / Canada).
Re:Labor Of Love (Score:5, Informative)
The DeBeers marketing campaigns are brilliant. If you are exposed to them from a young age and see fictional weddings on TV and how they focus on the ring, you will understand. It is ground into North American minds from the very beginning. Most people in North America know what I'm talking about when I refer to the "A Diamond is Forever Music."
Re:Labor Of Love (Score:3, Funny)
And there I thought it was Microsoft
I told a girl once, while living in the States, the only thing she could expect from me is an onion ring, after all it at least has nutrional value.
Re:Labor Of Love (Score:3, Funny)
Axis of Evil ;-)
Re:Labor Of Love (Score:3, Interesting)
If anyone is curious, the composer of the "Diamond Music" (official title, Shadows) is Karl Jenkins. Based on that commissioned work, Jenkins has constructed a three-movement suite called Palladio. More information here [jeansonne.com]. Palladio appears on a Sony Classical recording aptly titled (in the U.S.) Diamond Music [sonyclassical.com].
Excellent Atlantic Monthly article... (Score:3, Informative)
Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond? [theatlantic.com]
Re:Labor Of Love (Score:5, Funny)
Or if not a check, at least some cattle or some other form of livestock.
If the engagement ring is two months' salary, the dowry should be 20% of the value of the parents' net worth.
Re:Labor Of Love (Score:3, Interesting)
heck, i know a couple who earn half of what i do but live at a much higher standard due to in-law support.
Re:Labor Of Love (Score:5, Interesting)
And besides, have you ever been married? With or without diamond wives freakin' expensive!
Re:Labor Of Love (Score:3, Interesting)
Price War (Score:3, Interesting)
Price War.
The general's not a fool. He won't sell at $5/carat. He'll pitch them at 10 - 50% cheaper than DeBeers. Cheaper diamonds, but not *ridiculously* cheap diamonds. Just cheap enough to get the cost-concious buyer to think "Yeah, it's artificial, but it's still a flawless diamond, and it's 25% cheaper than that other, identical stone...".
DeBeers will either have to reduce prices, or deal with the General. There's a good chance things could get nasty. If the general and his process survive
Re:Labor Of Love (Score:5, Funny)
Talk about illogical nonsense.
If you spend a fortune on a diamond so that you can be in the poor house when it comes to raising the kids, does this make sense? Or would you rather have a $5 piece of rock and lots of other money to invest in raising offspring.
(Personal opinion follows, not for flames...) This is the kind of thinking I expect from females. It is part of their master plan to remove all joy from the universe.
Re:Labor Of Love (Score:3, Interesting)
No wonder half of all marriages fail within the first year.Some people think that in order to prove you love & trust I halve to fork out thousands of dollars? I don't know which is worse, you having the gall to make such a statement (AC no less) or the 4 knuckle heads that modded you up.
Re:Labor Of Love (Score:4, Funny)
sheesh.
Re:Labor Of Love (Score:3, Informative)
Seriously, other gems really are much prettier. Diamonds aren't even "forever". They can be incinerated, and there are harder substances than diamond...how would they cut them if there wasn't anything harder?
Synthetic diamonds (Score:5, Interesting)
De Beers has been trying to 'educate' the diamond masses about these 'heretic' stones, but eventually, this will bankrupt them
Now, as for the RIAA, CD-Rs and file-sharing won't kill the music industry. I wouldn't even expect a drop in sale-price, just more and more bureaucratic nonsense.
Re:Synthetic diamonds (Score:3, Interesting)
Filesharing creates inferior MP3 copies of "perfect" CD audio WAVs. The difference between MP3 and CD is the same as between "artificial" carbon crystal and the "natural" one. If Debeers can "educate" people that their diamonds are real ones, then RIAA do the same to educate people that MP3s are crap. If, on the other hand, RIAA can't educate people so, the chances are Debeers will not be able to do that either. See the Wired article for some quotes by a diamond trader - he is happy to make his pr
Re:Synthetic diamonds (Score:3, Interesting)
Many of the people who record concerts (Phish and Dave Matthews) onto DAT go with lossless to distribute.
Shorten
Monkey's Audio
WavPack
FLAC (ooh it's also "free")
to name a few
Darn (Score:5, Funny)
DeBeers never promised (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:DeBeers never promised (Score:3, Informative)
Yeah, but wouldn't inflation make the prices lower, when compared to today's dollars?
So in a sense, by not raising the dollar ammount, they have lowered prices.
Re:DeBeers never promised (Score:4, Interesting)
One of us must have a very bad memory then,
because I remember the uproar when they raised CD prices back to $15, after they had lowered them to $10.
They said that they didn't sell any more CDs at the lower price, so there was no point in charging less.
Back then they were at least honest about just being in it for the money.
-- this is not a
Re:DeBeers never promised (Score:3, Insightful)
Then how 'bout I sell you my i386 25 mHz PS1 with a meg of ram for $3k and we'll call it a deal.
control is the problem (Score:4, Informative)
De Beers (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:De Beers (Score:3, Interesting)
Because, troll child, the record industry hasn't assassinated anybody or enslaved entire towns. It's much harder to convince the government to prosecute a company when everyone is making money and nobody is dying. Until people start dying, you can expect corporations to routinely beat any charges brought against them. See Enron for the latest example.
of diamonds and women (Score:3, Funny)
Artificial diamonds are here. When are artificial women coming up?
Upgrade to a Stepford 9000! (Score:4, Funny)
Taco needed $5 Diamonds (Score:4, Funny)
About a year ago as I recall
Antoher reason I am glad I have ducked the marriage bullet to this point.
(honestly it wasnt that hard, I am a geek after all)
Cheers
Re:Taco needed $5 Diamonds (Score:5, Funny)
Artificial Scarcity (Score:5, Insightful)
The better question is, what becomes scarce? Knowledge? Art? Service technicians for replication devices? I've yet to hear a good answer. The elimination of scarcity throws our entire economic model out the window. What's the new model? Do we go Star Trek and only care about improving ourselves?
Re:Artificial Scarcity (Score:5, Interesting)
All these things need power, and all of these things will be developed before good solar power harnessing is implimented [thus practically eliminating that scarcity]
Re:Artificial Scarcity (Score:4, Insightful)
My last post [slashdot.org] touched on the same ideas: We are moving out of the age of "scarcity-based value" quite rapidly.
It won't be long before you can "print" nearly everything from its atomic components.
We all (as a society) need to carefully consider the implications of the framework we are laying down now:
Single-entity (human, or worse: corporate) monopolistic control of "information" or "Intellectual Property" is leading towards the "worse" end of the spectrum, at least as far as I am concerned.
Call me a hippie, but I'm not.
Call me a communist, but I'm not.
Call me a StarTrek nut, but I'm not.
Call me anything you wish, but I firmly believe that everyone has an inherant (natural) right to use any and all information that enters their person.
This may be too over-the-top for most people, but:
Everyone has a inherant, 'natural' right to use information, including EMF radiation (radio/television signals passing *through* your body), genetic encodings (God help you, Monsonto!), Clever C++ code implementations (patented or not), or whatever.
We need to take back control of our information!
-dave-
Shameless plug:
Use BearShare [bearshare.com] for all your peer-to-peer needs!
However (Score:3, Insightful)
On the other hand, while music sharing causes a significant problem for the RIAA, they can still do something about it. The issue of the RIAA's price fixing will never be resolved until some method is devised and implemented successfully to bring independently-produced music to the fore.
It's more about awareness than technology (Score:5, Interesting)
Diamonds are a rotten analogy because it suggests that, up to now and the magic golden age of P2P, the publishing industry posessed all of the real music. The only thing that really distinguishes their product is that it is so obvious. If you never want to buy a major label release again but want new music all the time it really is not hard at all to do. It just involves a little more work.
There are two ways in which the internet may create a revolution for independent musicians. One is by offering a viable replacement for radio. The second is by exposing music to the distributed filtering techniques of mass exposure and moderation that the internet essentially gave rise to the invention of. File sharing as such strikes me as something that will be much of an adjunct to the real 21st century revolution of music - assuming it really happens because it sure hasn't yet.
RIAA & CD Sales are hand in hand, kind of... (Score:5, Informative)
Market effects (Score:3, Interesting)
I'd say that this comparison is a bit inaccurate. DeBeers can reduce the number of diamonds offered on the market - supply drops, demand raises the price of the good. Simple. Raising the price and keeping the amount of goods offered at the same level will lead you nowhere, because customers will wait for the prices to drop since they know that a surplus of goods will build up over time (which decreases the price).
Now, does the RIAA really reduce the number of CD in the stores? Because only this would compare to the influence DeBeers has on the market... No, they just raise the price. And guess what - customers buy less CD and turn to P2P.
P2P music sharing distributes a good (mp3) that is nearly equal to the original good (CD). While the $5 diamond may be equal in the quality compared to a 'real' (= DeBeers) diamond, the price is part of the value of the 'real' diamond. Give a $10 ring to a woman, and she'll like it. Give the exactly same ring for $1000 to a woman, and she'll feel appreciated. Diamonds are a girls best friend, after all.
Re:Market effects (Score:4, Interesting)
The only problem I have with that logic is that you cannot sell a diamond for (anywhere near) what you paid for it. Ignoring the setting and assuming you spent all the money on the stone, your $1000 ring will most likely bring you $150-$200. When I went to sell a diamond I found about three dealers in the entire US that specialize in non-estate used diamonds. I was lucky enough to get almost 60% of what I paid for my ring, but it was a lot of work.
No, no, no (Score:3, Interesting)
In reality, file trading is *still* theft because you're breaching the artist's copyright. He's comparing apples and oranges...music is a personally created work of art which is copyrightable. Diamonds are a naturally occuring deposit that just happen to be horded by one relatively nasty company. While I agree the two bare striking resemblances in their distribution models (read: iron fisted), that's where it ends.
The hullabaloo over file sharing is that, since music can be digitized, it can be easily replicated. We all realize by now that the reason P2P is succeeding is because it came up with a more convenient, but less secure, form of distribution. The RIAA's argument is that because music can be duplicated, they will lose the group of customers who would noramlly all individually buy an item but who instead buy one and dupe. A parallel would be DeBeers, had they created the Hope Diamond, getting pissed because someone was able to replicate it and sell it for $5 on the street.
That's not the case, this company is creating new diamonds (parallel: independant artists) that will use the same distribution model (retail sale, more than likely) as DeBeers. The only person who should be getting pissed in all cases is the owner of the original work, which for music is the copyright holder, with diamonds it's God (or, for you scientists, Mr. Pressure). I don't think God (or pressure, for that matter) cares.
It still infuriates both DeBeers and the RIAA, so I understand the comparison, but please don't argue that new, cheap diamonds are the same as P2P. One's legal, one's not (in most cases).
--trb
The RIAA dream. (Score:4, Funny)
Don't want to give DeBeers money? (Score:5, Informative)
True, Diamonds won't be expensive for long, and Moissanite is cheaper now, and may eventually cost more than diamond. But, Moissanite is harder than Ruby, and has a greater luster than diamond, and it also costs about 1/10 of what diamond does today.
* One day, you will find a nice little woman who wants a ring, and generally it is best to get her one!
"Intellectual Property" is forever(?) (Score:4, Interesting)
CDs aren't forever, but the force of copyright means that if you cut a Big Hit(tm), you and your heirs can have a recurring revenue stream for a long time, along with all the fat, balding, over-40 WASPs who are the bulk of the middlemen pushing your work. So RIAA wants to hawk as many "legit" jewels as they can without someone undercutting them. That you can buy some DRM'd songs and can't transfer them to a new system. Hard to find anyone against the concept of playing a "used" MP3 on their system, right?
Apples to oranges (Score:3, Insightful)
True, both the member companies of RIAA and DeBeers are cartels, but what one controls through rarity (diamonds) the other controls through absolute control (music).
The author points to the fact that RIAA companies have pumped out 20% fewer new albums, and then somehow tries to parallel this to the same stratedy as DeBeers. Doesn't work I'm afraid. A diamond is a diamond, and having control over how many are on the market allows you control over price (assuming demand stays the same). The same is not true for music CDs...one album is not the same as another.
If (for example) the latest U2 album had been put out with only 100,000 copies made available, then the price could be pushed up on those CDs much higher as demand would not be met by that number. However, the price is completely uncorrelated to how many other albums are available.
A better correlation between DeBeers and RIAA would have been to focus on the loss of control each industry is facing. Diamonds will soon be cranked out at $5 per karat, and garage bands can now reach a global audience without RIAA interaction. The RIAA isn't playing nice in its death throwes, and I shudder to think what DeBeers will do in theirs.
The Problem with Music (Score:3, Interesting)
http://www.negativland.com/albini.html [negativland.com]
PS: Steve Albini for those that don't know was in many bands very influential to the Nirvana/Pearl Jam type bands of the day. Bands like Big Black and Shellac...then he turned to producing bands like Nirvana and Bush and others...
Neal Stephenson was right! (Score:3)
Read "The Diamond Age".
Help the RIAA - Not a Troll (Score:5, Insightful)
So, the RIAA's issue is they haven't yet found a way to make money off of file sharing. If there was money in it, they'd be fostering it, not trying to kill it.
So, they're pursuing two directions right now. Fight tooth and nail to protect their current bread and butter (CD sales). They're not doing this for the artists... lord no, they're doing this for the labels. THe other direction they're going is trying to find new sources of revenue. NOTE: This new source must be as large if not larger than the existing stream (from a margin perspective).
Once they find a way to make money on filesharing, I bet two things happen. a) they stop harrassing folks and b) CD prices drop b/c they're no longer a one trick pony.
Sooooo... in an effort to stop the lawsuits and help get CD prices down, we, the buying public, need to find a way for the RIAA/labels to make billions off of online file sharing... hopefully without some terrible DRM integrated into the solution.
There have been many attempts... the $0.99 downloads are the most recent and most successful... but they're still not much compared to the brick and mortor sales that are occuring.
Put your heads together! Come up with a feasible way for the RIAA to migrate to a new business model and make all our lives easier.
I dare you.. find a hole in this logic
Re:Help the RIAA - Not a Troll (Score:3, Insightful)
I have enough trouble trying to make money for myself; you want me to help people I hate make money instead?
Re:Help the RIAA - Not a Troll (Score:4, Insightful)
The RIAA represents the labels in distribution issues. If they must resort to litigation and FUD to survive then they deserve to die by the invisible hand of capitalism. By choosing litigation and FUD instead of the market, they have essentially spit on a cornerstone of freedom and I have no pity for their demise.
Hopefully, *Apple* makes billions from online distribution because they have embraced the market and the consumers within it. The RIAA deserves nothing.
I want a diamond cd! (Score:3, Funny)
Blood Diamonds - Does RIAA have blood on its hands (Score:3, Informative)
Because this is about the RIAA, and it brings out the worst in me, I couldn't help but bring your attention in this analogy of the diamond trade and the music trade - the "Blood Diamond." Does the RIAA have blood on its hands ... (of course this is meant only in the sense of extending the analogy ... so RIAA please don't try to sue me ... ha ha.)
Blood Diamonds [amnestyusa.org]
http://www.amnestyusa.org/amnestynow/diamonds.html
Greg Campbell is the author of the forthcoming Blood Diamonds: Tracing the Deadly Path of the World?s Most Precious Stones (Westview Press), to be released in September 2002.
Illicit diamonds make fabulous profits for terrorists and corporations alike. The trade illustrates with the hard clarity of the gem itself that no matter where human rights violations occur, the world ignores them at its peril.
Market data concurs with Menta's analysis (Score:5, Informative)
The RIAA's "xxx's is killing music" (substitute cassettes, P2P, MP3, whatever comes next) is somewhat undermined by all of this.
Menta makes the point that CDs are priced by the big five at the point that maximises profit. No surprise then to hear that whilst UK CD sales were up by 3%, profit was down by 2%.
One Week Only!! (Score:5, Funny)
Choose any of these great topics...
and for the truly abitious
Sign up now for priority seating. Check our some of our current well known registered participants.
Music - RIAA
Video - MPAA
Diamonds - DeBeers
Oil - OPEC
Don't start a Cartel without checking out this conference. Only one Cartel per Industry please.
Give a RIAA CD to your girlfriend... (Score:5, Funny)
Telling quote from the article (Score:4, Insightful)
Now... I have never, ever used the "If you loved me you'd sleep with me|suck my dick|swallow|let me fuck your sister|whatever else" bullshit.
I've always thought that sort of attitude was eminently disrespectful to anyone with whom you could possibly have any kind of relationship what so ever. It's something only the completely immoral assholes use on mindless, pathetic simulacra. And I say "immoral", not "amoral", since the statement entails a subversion of a pretense of emotional values.
But, De Beers clearly seems to think it works. It seems to think that this is a perfectly acceptable way to communicate with their clients, in their relationship with us. So, we have that same immoral to simulacrum relationship.
It's nice to be called a "worthless cunt" to your face, isn't it folks?
Linares' patent for vapor deposition (Score:5, Informative)
DeBeers has been much more effective than RIAA (Score:5, Informative)
part 1 [theatlantic.com]
part 2 [theatlantic.com]
part 3 [theatlantic.com]
yeah (Score:3)
More info on Diamonds (Score:5, Informative)
DeBeers is an even bigger fraud than the RIAA. Diamonds (even natural ones) are not really scarce. Also, the new lab methods do not all rely on the mettalic solvents to create diamonds. One is deposited as plasma, with no extra gunk in the process. They are white diamonds, of unusual perfection.
BTW, Plastic [plastic.com] had this a few weeks ago [plastic.com].
Dean G.
Where to place the overpriced CD's (Score:5, Funny)
De Beers losing its monopoly? (Score:3, Funny)
No, wait, that's the new diamond-based cd copy protection shredding my drive. Damn...
Alternative to the DeBeers Engagement Tax (Score:3, Informative)
Look at their Asha stone. My wife and I got one of those for our engagement, and the jewlers who put together the ring said that they were fooled from two feet away. And it's harder than anything else non-diamond.
Maybe someday we'll replace it with an actual synthetic diamond!
the difference is... (Score:5, Informative)
Artificial diamons (Score:3, Informative)
Re:They aren't so worried about $5 synthetics (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't know whether those $1.5 billion worth of diamonds are still sitting in Israeli banks, but I wouldn't bet on it.
Re:They aren't so worried about $5 synthetics (Score:3, Insightful)
The points about the used diamond market are particularly relevant. As in there is *no* second hand diamond market. Why is that, given that a diamond doesn't physically deteriorate like most other goods?
Re:They aren't so worried about $5 synthetics (Score:3, Interesting)
And they have diamond testing machines right there in the store.
Industrial quality? (Score:5, Informative)
These new companies are not making diamond dust, they are making gem size diamonds, and plan to use the income from that, as they destroy deBeers, to finance making diamonds for semiconductors, as in huge wafers.
Maybe you could come up with some definition for "industrial" diamonds, whatever that is, and then update it for the new artificial diamonds, and realize it has no more meaning.
Re:They aren't so worried about $5 synthetics (Score:5, Funny)
Re:They aren't so worried about $5 synthetics (Score:3, Funny)
Re:They aren't so worried about $5 synthetics (Score:4, Interesting)
They're worried about the yellow diamonds that are now capable of being reproduced, in extremely large sizes, in extremely good quality. These are not 'just' industrial diamonds - these are extremely high quality, extremely pure, large diamonds which can be grown by two different independent research groups right now, using extremely high pressure systems that have been in development for years.
The yellows are at the very top end of the scale, and are something DeBeers has been cultivating as a market for years - now they're reproducable, and lab-made yellows are higher quality than anything DeBeers can muster.
DeBeers deserves to go down. There is no better example of corporate evil.
Re:Synth Rocks (Score:3, Informative)