Dude, take the tinfoil hat off. VESA charges once for the specification, but does not charge a royalty based on each device. They also charge membership fees. Your never going to get away from things like HDCP and DPCP, but it is trivial to make an uncertified device that strips the protection off. They already do so for DVI/HDMI. Many sites like Tom's have the digital capture equipment you describe and use it in their video card reviews. It is critical in the functioning of fcat, which they use to measure frame time.