> "if I spent the time, risk, effort, and money to develop the pre-eminent protocol and hardware used by most TV's in the world... would I want to give that work away for free?"
Only if you want people to use it. Developing a protocol is an investment in defining the direction a technology follows; the benefits are not best accrued by charging for access to the standard, but rather by leveraging the ability to direct the trend.
The alternative is that the licensing charge causes a bunch of stupid friction and prevents the standard from being truly universal.
EDIT: Implementing a standard is enough work, paying for the privilege to do so is often a non-starter.
Only if you want people to use it. Developing a protocol is an investment in defining the direction a technology follows; the benefits are not best accrued by charging for access to the standard, but rather by leveraging the ability to direct the trend.
The alternative is that the licensing charge causes a bunch of stupid friction and prevents the standard from being truly universal.
EDIT: Implementing a standard is enough work, paying for the privilege to do so is often a non-starter.