Standards and copyright: finding a balance.

摘要

Over the past several years, a tug-of-warhas been quietly reshaping the landscape of how people acquire and use the standards that play such an integral role in many fields, including the medical technology arena. Pulling on one end of the rope are the duo of accessibility and convenience. Access to standards has never been easier. Go to any standards developing organization (SDO) or reseller website, click the mouse a few times, enter your credit card number, and you're downloading the standard you need. Or, if you're trying to find the newest guidance document on risk management, simply click the icon on your desktop that launches your company's online subscription and gives you access to a library of thousands of standards from hundreds of standards publishers. And, because standards now come in user-friendly PDF and HTML formats, you can copy, paste, annotate, and print to your heart's content.