Standards: Free or sold?

摘要

Why do some standards development organizations (SDOs) provide standards for free and others charge significant amounts of money for them? The fees from the sale of standards and the stringent policies on sharing copies of standards may decrease the number of people who access these documents and may thus reduce the impact of the standards. Consider two scenarios. In one scenario, information technology standards are available only via purchase. In the other scenario, information is freely available, such as through the Internet.