Apple's next move is becoming clearer and clearer with each passing day. On one hand we have the silent changes that have been made to .Mac subscribers; on the other we have Front Row and its trailer streaming capabilities; and the third and final piece of the puzzle has just arrived.

It would seem that Burst.com, a developer of video and audio delivery software is being sued in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco, on January 4th 2006, by Apple Computer for declaratory relief, alleging patent invalidity or non-infringement.

"The suit follows a breakdown in protracted negotiations for issuance of a license of Burst's patents to cover Apple's iPod and iTunes products. Burst anticipates responding to the complaint and filing a counterclaim for patent infringement shortly," reports Burst.com. "Burst remains committed to the enforcement of its intellectual property and looks forward to successfully resolving this litigation through a license covering Apple's Quicktime, iPod and iTunes products, including Apple's iTunes Music Store."

Burst.com's Burstware allows for delivery of high quality full-motion video and CD-quality audio over IP-based networks. The company has been around since 1990 and over the years has built an international patent portfolio covering bursting, video delivery scheduling and Rapid-casting. Burstware, Faster-Than-Real-Time and Burst-Enabled are trademarks of Burst.com.

So, Apple's Front Row media hub application can stream movie trailers from the net, and .Mac subscribers are getting their data transfer capacity increased from 10GB per month to 1024GB (one terabyte) per month, and Apple is getting a license for Burst.com's streaming tehnology... Is Apple about to do what was considered impossible and impractical and unprofitable, and start offering full length feature films for viewing? Wouldn't be the first time they pulled something like this off.