Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: a couple quickies / copyright
Message-ID: <1988Jan23.213656.26672@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <11140@brl-adm.ARPA> <6967@brl-smoke.ARPA> <23133@rebel.UUCP>, <14461@think.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 23-Jan-88 21:36:53 EST

> ... They have very little
> interest in making it easy to get copies of standards through other
> mechanisms, as it will just cut into their profits.

There is also a specific problem with the release of machine-readable forms
of standards:  the possibility of mutated versions without warnings of the
mutations.  This is, unfortunately, *not* an imaginary problem; it really
has happened.  At least some of the people involved in setting ANSI and
IEEE policy on such things consider this the more important consideration,
or so I am told.

Incidentally, those who rail against the Selfish Standards Publishers who
are afraid of things "cutting into their profits" should first look at
what those profits are used for, and whether those activities are worthwhile.
I doubt that massive reductions in ANSI's publishing revenues are really in
the best interests of mankind, for example.
-- 
Those who do not understand Unix are |  Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
condemned to reinvent it, poorly.    | {allegra,ihnp4,decvax,utai}!utzoo!henry