To Omega: "depressing that standards like HDMI aren't open and free to use"
The standards organizations eg IEC, IEEE, AES, etc take considerable time and cost to create and maintain them.
Manufactures and compliant users pay the small fess to get the genuine and up to date standards.
If you spent years to write a book, movie script or compose music, and that is your profession, would you give it all away?
Enjoy,
Jon