[vladittude0583]

Originally Posted by Big Daddy

Most people are under the impression that Toshiba invented the DVD. The truth is that no single company owns the rights to DVD. Please read the following paragraphs. They are from the following link:
http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html#6.1

“DVD is the work of many companies and many people. DVD evolved from CD and related technologies. Some of the early proposals for "high-density CD" were made in 1993, and these efforts gradually coalesced into two competing proposed formats. The MultiMedia Compact Disc (MMCD) format was backed by Sony, Philips, and others. The Super Density disc (SD) format was backed by Toshiba, Matsushita, Time Warner, and others. A group of computer companies led by IBM insisted that the factions agree on a single standard. The combined DVD format was announced in September of 1995, avoiding a confusing and costly repeat of the VHS vs. Betamax videotape battle or the quadraphonic sound battle of the 1970s.

No single company "owns" DVD. The official specification was developed by a consortium of ten companies: Hitachi, JVC, Matsushita, Mitsubishi, Philips, Pioneer, Sony, Thomson, Time Warner, and Toshiba. Representatives from many other companies also contributed in various working groups. In May 1997, the DVD Consortium was replaced by the DVD Forum, which is open to all companies, and as of 2005 had over 250 members. Time Warner originally trademarked the DVD logo, and has since assigned it to the DVD Format/Logo Licensing Corporation (DVD FLLC). The written term "DVD" is too common to be trademarked or owned. See section 6.2 and visit Robert's DVD Info page for links to Web sites of companies working with DVD.

Any company making DVD products must license essential technology patents from the "3C' pool (LG, Philips, Pioneer, Sony: 3.5% per player/drive, minimum $3.50; additional $0.75 for Video CD compatibility; 3.75 cents per disc), the "6C" pool (Hitachi, Matsushita (Panasonic), Mitsubishi, Samsung, Sanyo, Sharp, Toshiba, Victor (JVC), Warner: 4% per player/drive, minimum $3, maximum $8; 4% per "DVD Video decoder", minimum $1; 4.5 cents per ROM/Video/Audio disc; 4.5 cents for DVD-R disc; 6.5 cents for RW/RAM disc) and from Thomson (~$1 per player/drive). Patent royalties of a few cents per disc are also owed to Discovision Associates, which once owned about 1300 optical disc patents, but many of them have expired. Per disc costs are paid by the replicator.

Note: IBM originally held about 250 DVD patents, but sold them to Mitsubishi in August 2005.”

Here is a link to another good article.
http://www.bookrags.com/DVD

I do believe however though that it was mainly Philips and Sony that hold most of the rights to DVD because every article I read regarding DVD, it lists Philips and Sony as the major developers of the media.