weren't carvers or EMI discs played by "top djs" part and parcel of the scene since the 70s? as a matter of facts, one well known UK dj had a whole bunch of EMI discs when he came over to Germany in the late 80s/early 90s. reason was, he bought pretty expensive discs, cut his EMI discs and sold the original 45s on. another example, years ago Pete Smith had Rob Marriotts EMI disc dub of Butchs Diane Lewis cover up for sale. Think the story was, that part of a record deal was that Rob did get a tape recording of the original acetate.
So, carvers are nothing new IMO. yet, due to exposure on and the distribution of information via the internet, lots of people think this is something rather recent.