I have in my possession a Dead Kennedys CD, the single “Holiday in Cambodia”. I was puzzled, as the copyright on the thing says 1980, yet I did not know that CDs were around that long. What made me more suspicious is that its in one of those half size cases, and I didn’t see those until a few years ago. So I guess my questions are these:
1.Were CDs actually being made in 1980?
2.Were these half size cases made in 1980?
3.Is this particular CD from 1980?
No, the first CDs were released in the mid 1980s. However, many albums dating from before that time have been re-released on CD, and the copyright date is usually that of the original sound recording (except where the recording has been remastered, or extra material added etc).
According to this site, the first CDs were released in the US in 1983.
According to this site, the Deady Kennedys released Holiday in Cambodia in 1980.
A quick Google search doesn’t lead me to discover when the half-height CD cases first appeared…
So:
1: No.
2: No. (but I dunno when they first appeared… someone with more patience and/or better Googling skills than I may dig up this info later.)
3: No. The song was released (and presumably copyrighted) in 1980… at some later time it was released on the CD you now possess.
The “half thickness” CD cases were used for CD singles for as long as I can remember. The first CD single I bought was in 1988, and that was in one of the thin cases. (And no, I’m not going to tell you what it was 
)
Would make a difference that the CD says it was manufactured in England then?
Oh C’mon! We won’t make fun! (at least not too much…)
And I feel I must clarify my previous post: the “Deady Kennedys” was the original name of the band, of course… not a typo at all.
Ermm… go back to that site and look at the year 1982.