Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!cbnewsi!hrs1
From: hrs1@cbnewsi.ATT.COM (herman.r.silbiger)
Newsgroups: comp.std.internat
Subject: Re: copyright
Summary: who pays for standards
Message-ID: <1908@cbnewsi.ATT.COM>
Date: 13 Feb 90 05:08:54 GMT
References: <3109@paperboy.OSF.ORG> <15930@haddock.ima.isc.com>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 23

In article <15930@haddock.ima.isc.com>, news@haddock.ima.isc.com (overhead) writes:
> too slow or cumbersome when little money is invested up front.  What
> I'm trying to say here is that the people who want ISO implementations
> (end users) should pay for the standards developments, not the
> potential implementers.  If funding cannot be found for this, it would
> imply to me that the ISO standards effort has no value. 
> 
> Jim

People that want the standards do pay for that development.  All attendants
at a standards meeting were sent by their companies.   Users as well as developers participate.  The cost to the users is also reflected in the cost of the
product.  Not only does it cost the participants time,
but also travel and living expenses. Just add up the cost of
40 engineers for a week, round trip travel, often abroad, hotel rooms and
meals, etc.

The results are available to everybody.  The only cost to non participants
is paying the administartion, publication and distribution costs.  Or perhaps
you feel that, since it did not cost anything to develop the standard,
you should also not have to pay for the document, and they should not
be copyrighted.

Herman Silbiger