Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!A.ISI.EDU!LYNCH
From: LYNCH@A.ISI.EDU (Dan Lynch)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.iso
Subject: Re: OSI Documents
Message-ID: <12541747171.23.LYNCH@A.ISI.EDU>
Date: 12 Nov 89 23:14:50 GMT
References: <8911122109.AA29503@tacky.cs.olemiss.edu>
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I believe that the previous messages about the high cost of ISO documents
are innacurate as to the reason for the high cost.  ISO is a large organization
that does the administrative work of organizing meetings and dealing with
appeals processes, etc.  It has no dues to support that activity.  It raises
a large part of its overhead expenses by charging more than printing and
distribution costs for its ONLY product, documents.  Wehn you look at it
in that light, things make "sense".  The RFC series has been mainly
paid for by the US Government in its many contracts to protocol developers
and to network information centers.  Thus it appears "free" to us.
Nothing is free, as we all know.  

I doo agree that it would be better for the spread of ISO's OSI protocols
if the documents were freely available.  

Dan
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