Blu-ray Licensing to Get Easier and Cheaper

AlleyInsider speculates that licensing changes to Blu-Ray could pave the way to Mac support for the High Definition drives.

A new licence will be established by mid-2009 as a "one-stop shop" for device makers. The licence will include all necessary Blu-ray, DVD and CD patents for selling Blu-ray players. The licensing programme will be handled by a new licensing company to be led by Gerald Rosenthal, former head of intellectual property at IBM. It will be based in the US, but will have local branches in Asia, Europe and Latin America.

The new streamlined process will reportedly cut the total cost of royalty payments by 40 percent. Apple's Steve Jobs specifically cited complicated licensing issues as one of the hurdles to adopting Blu-Ray in Apple's own computers.

Of interest, Apple's recent inclusion of HDCP copy protection in their newest laptops could also help pave the way for support of the HD disc format.