Nigel - As far as we can tell, no. AirPlay licensing currently appears to be a hardware program. AirPlay protocol itself isn't licensed, but instead a chip that can do AirPlay is. Hardware makers can buy it and get AirPlay into their devices. This is done via a hardware company called BridgeCo, which is in charge of making and distributing said chips.

As far as we can tell, Apple isn't giving the details of AirPlay out to anyone but BridgeCo (as they need to know them to make the chips). To hardware OEMs, AirPlay is going to be a black box: data comes in, magic happens, audio comes out.

To even get this level of access, one must sign the MadeForiPod licensing agreement, and then be personally approved for AirPlay licensing. I don't think we'd be accepted.

So be mindful of any claims that AirPlay is now "open", it is still very much under Apple's ultimate control. Well, Apple and Rogue Amoeba, we still know how it works.