[Ti] Dual Layer cable for Powerbook G4 400

[Kynan Shook]

The theory I've heard is that it's actually an MPEG-2 licensing  
issue; instead of licensing per copy of iDVD sold or distributed on a  
computer (which gets especially costly with upgrades), they license  
per DVD-R drive sold, since iDVD won't write to anything else.  At a  
royalty of $4 a pop before 2002 and $2.50 since, that could add up to  
some pretty serious dinero.

And, unlike the MPEG-4 licensing fees where there's an annual cap, I  
don't believe MPEG-2 producers have this safety net.  For MPEG-4  
encoding and decoding, Apple pays a flat $2 million per year; they  
hit the cap (25 cents per encoder, 25 cents per decoder) in well  
under a month just from the free QuickTime downloads online.

Chris Olson <chris.olson at astcomm.net> writes:
> You can get around the Apple lock-in with iDVD on your PowerBook.
> Apple did that originally to force people to buy their inferior and
> overpriced (underspec'd compared to what you could get in a PC for
> less money) internal DVD burners.  When the guys at OWC wrote "the
> enabler" to allow iDVD burning with external or non-Apple burners,
> Apple broke out the strong-arm tactics to shut it down.  So they
> moved it to a website off US shores where Apple can't do anything
> about it except throw a hissy fit.