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Companies that wish to make Blu-ray devices will very soon have a less expensive and simpler licensing process, according to a joint announcement Wednesday from Sony, Philips, and Panasonic.

A new license will be established by mid-2009 as a "one-stop shop" for device makers. The license will include all necessary Blu-ray, DVD, and CD patents for selling Blu-ray players. The licensing program 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 U.S., but will have local branches in Asia, Europe, and Latin America.

Instead of having to approach Blu-ray, DVD, and CD holders individually and paying them separate royalties, the single license should cut down the total cost of royalty payments by 40 percent, according to Sony.

The fees for the new licenses will be $9.50 for a Blu-ray player, and $14 for a Blu-ray recorder. Making Blu-ray Disc will cost 11 cents for read-only, 12 cents for recordable discs, and 15 cents for rewritable discs.

The idea for a one-stop shop for Blu-ray has been floating around since a 2007 meeting of the 18 companies that hold Blu-ray patents. Licensing fees can be extremely lucrative for disc format patent holders: several years ago license fees for making a DVD player cost between $15 and $20.

This one-stop shop will help avoid the headache DVD licenses created. To make a DVD player or disc, manufacturers have had to ink deals with three separate organizations that represented various patent holders. There is DVD 6c (Hitachi, Panasonic, JVC, and six others); DVD 3c (Philips, Sony, Pioneer); and MPEG LA (representing encoders and decoders).

Former CNET News editor Michael Kanellos contributed to this report.

Inkjet technology isn't just for printers.

Hewlett-Packard has agreed to license its patent on inkjet for use in a treatment system for people suffering kidney failure, according to HP's director of IP licensing, Charlie Chapman.

Sure, the two might sound completely unrelated, but HP's done something similar before: last year, another medical services company licensed inkjet intellectual property to administer vaccines.

But this time, HP will allow Home Dialysis Plus, a new company still gathering funding, to use HP's "fluid management" technology used in inkjet printers.

HP uses it to create calculated mixtures of ink and water, which are then delivered through a printer to a piece of paper. Home Dialysis Plus will use it to mix tap water and concentrated dialysis solution at a level customized for patients that can be administered at home rather than at a treatment center.

Patients who must get clinical dialysis three times a week basically have to plan their lives around getting ready for the next treatment, according to HD Plus CEO Michael Baker. A home treatment is more ideal, but getting the correct mixture of water and dialysis fluids is hard and can be prone to human error.

Baker says the HP printing technology solves that. "It allows us to create a mixture on the fly as treatment is occurring," he said. The HD Plus system also uses the loading system one might find in a printer. Concentrated dialysis solution is contained in modules, like ink cartridges, that snap into the treatment system the way cartridges snap into a printer.

HD Plus says the product using HP's technology is 18 months to two years from completion, at which time it will still have to pass FDA trials.

File this one under "driver tech" instead of "car tech." The State of New York has started offering driver's licenses embedded with RFID chips, or enhanced driver's licenses (EDLs). The news comes on the heels of New York becoming the second state to offer identification that can be shown at the border in lieu of a U.S. passport (which is also RFID-embedded).

(Credit: New York DMV)

The radio frequency identification chip in the EDL will be able to be scanned by authorities to identify citizens entering the state from Canada, Mexico, or the Caribbean. Intercontinental travelers will still need to produce a passport to enter the country.

Authorities say no personal information will be stored or transmitted by the chip, only an identification number. Those who don't necessarily trust the powers that be can opt for a standard license, which doesn't work as a passport, or look into getting an RFID-blocking wallet and an aluminum foil hat.

The new EDLs will be available at a $30 premium over the standard $50 licensing fee. If you think $80 is a lot for a driver's license, consider that the cost of a standard New York license plus that of a United States passport is about $150.

The Business Software Alliance is best known for tracking piracy rates and announcing high-profile settlements over improperly licensed programs. But a new study finds that most of its money is not coming from big corporations, but from small businesses.

Associated Press writer Brian Bergstein said his analysis showed that 90 percent of settlement revenue comes from small businesses. Last year the agency, which monitors compliance for companies such as Microsoft and Adobe Systems, took in $13 million in settlement proceeds, according to the AP.

A counterfeit copy of Office 2003, billed incorrectly as an OEM version of the software suite.

(Credit: Microsoft)

Among the other interesting tidbits is a chart showing where the organization's income originates (81 percent stems from settlements, with 13 percent coming from membership dues) and where the money is spent (nearly half went for legal fees, while 16 percent goes to public relations). Also the company has scaled back efforts to offer companies amnesty when they want to come into compliance, while upping the amount offered as rewards to employees who blow the whistle on their employers.

The article questions whether such rewards might encourage a worker in an IT department to report their employer, rather than fix their compliance issue. It also questions the BSA's assertion that it focuses on companies that are flagrantly flouting the software license terms, pointing to a case in Utah where a company had two unlicensed copies of Microsoft software.

One of the interesting issues, I think, is the increase in the technological means built into software, particularly from Microsoft, aimed at thwarting piracy before it occurs.

(Credit: Andy Carvin)

It might not have sails, or an anchor, or a mizzenmast (isn't that a great word?) but this Jeep is probably the most legitimate pirate vessel you'll see all day, unless you happen to be logging onto Crave from the beaches of Tortuga. This vehicle was spotted by blogger Andy Carvin on the roads of Washington, D.C. a few weeks ago. I like to think it's driven by a swashbucklers' rights lobbyist. (Special interests, my foot!)

Almost equally awesome is the license plate holder, which says "TOO CLOSE FOR CANNONS" on the top and "PREPARE TO BE BOARDED" underneath.

(Via Geekologie)

Now you have an alternative to your programmable VW bumper sticker if you want to communicate digitally with other road users. Roadmaster has unveiled two scrolling LED message systems that enable drivers to program up to 99 preset messages and five user-edited messages to share with other drivers. The system comes in two models: the Roadmaster Scrolling Digital License Plate Frame, and the Scrolling Rear Deck Message System, which sits on the car's parcel shelf; both are priced at $69.

Preset words and phrases can be called up using numbers on the systems' TV-like remote controls. According to Roadmaster, stock messages include "help me," "slow down," "turning left," and "your lights aren't working". For more creative souls, the displays can be used to show off your favorite aphorism, sports-team message, or greeting. To ensure that the latter remain decent, Roadmaster has fitted the systems with a "profanity filter", which displays a select number of words as ****.

This seems a little prudish to us: I mean, come on, how the **** are you supposed tell other drivers what you really want to say?

(Credit: Acme.com / CNET Networks)

Most people don't go out driving to make friends, but that's the philosophy behind a new (and extremely optimistic) social networking SMS service called PL8Scan, which enables cell phone-wielding drivers to contact other drivers by text message via the latter's license plate numbers.

Having signed up to PL8Scan, drivers who wish to initiate contact with other road users send a text message to a central repository using a five-digit number. In the message, the driver includes the license plate number of the intended recipient (including details of the state in which it is registered), as well as the substance of the message. In most cases, this will be the end of the story.

However, on the remarkably slim chance the recipient is also a signed-up member of PL8Scan and has agreed to have his or her messages forwarded on by text message, the communication gets through to its intended target. The sample message that PL8Scan provides is. "Hey BLUEBUG ...what party are you going to?" Presumably, the ideal outcome involves BLUEBUG text-messaging a response, and the original sender being invited to the party. (Users can also check their PL8 messages online.)

Call me a pessimistic old scrooge, but I'm skeptical about this ever working in practice. Even in cases in which both sender and recipient are PL8Scan members, we suspect there is little chance for highway friendship to flourish: by the time you have grabbed your phone, punched in a message, sent it via the central server, and waited for it to be read by BLUEBUG, the traffic will likely have moved on. Those looking for digital friendships out of doors might have better luck getting hold of a Microsoft Zune and cruising around looking for someone to be social with.