Mold Identification
It is a common and very useful practice to have all molds used in the production of Digital Optical Media engraved with an identification number. That engraving is a crucial operation, only performed by sophisticated work shops, requiring special metal surface softening, precision grinding, metal surface replenishing, engraving the new number, and rehardening the metal surface.

This number is a unique code, that identifies each mold applied through the entireindustry, world wide. The numbers are centrally controlled by IFPI, based in London, and serve two purposes, to identify the mold itself and link it to the responsibility of the plant who holds/owns it, and also to identify, beyond any reasonable doubt, the origin of each individual disc produced with that specific mold.

Dometek follows the policies set by IFPI regarding mold identification and advises all clients to also follow those proper business practices. As a matter of fact, these codes have saved many plants throughout the world when the local authorities question certain originals regarding their source, the fulfillment of the corresponding intellectual property Royalties, and other such related problems. A simple verification of the mentioned codes and the correlated documents that every plant is obliged to request and preserve in the course of their processing of every mastering and replication order, will point straight to those who either presented misleading documentation, or even, to other plants in the absence of the correct code in the physical material substrate for the original being contested.

SID code from IFPI