I have to believe that the gaggle of lawyers employed by both the BRDA and Toshiba considered this very scenario and since they went ahead as is, they seem reasonably secure that this is a non issue.

This is one of the odd ‘benefits’ the BRDA gains from forgoing the DVD Forums approval, their technically not offering a successor to the DVD, where HD DVD is. So in theory at least, they could probably convince a court, they shouldn’t be bound by the same rules as the HD DVD camp.

Or in other words I firmly believe that they could convince a court that the two products are dissimilar enough that they shouldn’t be forced to share intellectual property. (Although I won’t even begin to claim to be knowledgeable about EU law)

But at the same time I can’t completely rule out that the EU might apply pressure for cross licensing. Given that even if the studios were forced to make concessions, it would most likely only apply to EU region releases.

Universal made a calculated, conscious decision not to support Blu-ray, a decision that seems to stem from prior business dealings with Sony. So again (in theory) all Universal has prove is plausible evidence of this and in all likelihood a judge would relive them cross licensing and in the process set a precedent for the other studios to follow suit.

Then again, I could be dead wrong

I have to believe that the gaggle of lawyers employed by both the BRDA and Toshiba considered this very scenario and since they went ahead as is, they seem reasonably secure that this is a non issue.

This is one of the odd ‘benefits’ the BRDA gains from forgoing the DVD Forums approval, their technically not offering a successor to the DVD, where HD DVD is. So in theory at least, they could probably convince a court, they shouldn’t be bound by the same rules as the HD DVD camp.

Or in other words I firmly believe that they could convince a court that the two products are dissimilar enough that they shouldn’t be forced to share intellectual property. (Although I won’t even begin to claim to be knowledgeable about EU law)

But at the same time I can’t completely rule out that the EU might apply pressure for cross licensing. Given that even if the studios were forced to make concessions, it would most likely only apply to EU region releases.

Universal made a calculated, conscious decision not to support Blu-ray, a decision that seems to stem from prior business dealings with Sony. So again (in theory) all Universal has prove is plausible evidence of this and in all likelihood a judge would relive them cross licensing and in the process set a precedent for the other studios to follow suit.

Then again, I could be dead wrong