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[FYI] New ISO fees on the horizon?



http://news.com.com/2102-1032_3-5079256.html?tag=ni_print

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New ISO fees on the horizon?
By Evan Hansen
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
http://news.com.com/2100-1032-5079256.html

Information technology standards groups are raising warning flags 
over a proposal that could raise fees for commonly used industry 
codes, including two-letter country abbreviations, used in many 
commercial software products.

At stake is a tentative proposal from the International Organization 
for Standardization (ISO) to add usage royalties for several code 
standards, a move that opponents say could weaken standards adherence 
by forcing software providers to pay a fee for each ISO-compliant 
product they sell. The standards--ISO 3166, ISO 4217, ISO 639--cover 
country, currency and language codes, respectively.

News.context

What's new:
IT standards groups are rallying opposition to an ISO proposal to 
introduce usage royalties for widely adopted standards, including 
country codes.

Bottom line:
Critics say the proposal could weaken standards adherence by forcing 
software providers to pay a fee for each ISO-compliant product they 
sell. The backlash illustrates growing sensitivity in software 
circles over belated intellectual property claims.

More stories on standards
The ISO currently charges copyright royalties for the purchase and 
reproduction of many of its standards documents, but does not charge 
for access to the country-code standard. In addition, the ISO does 
not currently charge for use of any of its codes, for example, within 
a software application.

The proposal is still in the early stages, and may yet be 
significantly altered or shelved. Still, technology standards groups--
including the International Committee for Information Technology 
Standards (INCITS), the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and Unicode--
are rallying opposition.>

[...]

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