Who owns Blu-ray

[smegger56]

Hi all. I'm new here and i'm a supporter of the Blu-ray format. But, i havce some questions that searching the net has failed to answer for me, or isnt clear cut.

1. Who owns/developed Blu-ray?

I always thought that it was Sony who developed the technology, and that the BDA was formed so that the format would gain immense support and gain a huge foothold in the market place.

Now I know of the BDA, but, call me thick, i'm not sure how the BDA works. Do all the companies in the BDA hold rights to the format, or does Sony hold the rights and the BDA was formed to help market and spread the word for Blu-ray?

It's just I keep hearing how this is Sonys format and that, at the start, they ran the risk of it turning out like the betamax format, which always said to me that Blu-ray was an out and out Sony product.

Can anyone clear this up?

Thank you.