Re: 2167A, 498, commercial and mil standards...

[CONDIC@PSAVAX.PWFL.COM]

From: Marin David Condic, 407.796.8997, M/S 731-93
Subject: Re: 2167A, 498, commercial and mil standards...
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Michael Feldman <mfeldman@SEAS.GWU.EDU> Writes:
>
>OK - let's bring it closer to home and talk about ANSI, IEEE, and ISO,
>which make lots of money to support their standards programs by
>copyrighting and selling these. A copy of Fortran 90 (the standard, not
>a compiler) is around $200. The Ada 95 standard is still available
>electronically and (unless I mis-read the traffic on this subject)
>it took some negotiation to keep it there. Thinking of the Ada 95
>standard as a microcosmic view of the whole free-electronic
>vs. expensive-paper situation will help to crystallize it in your minds.
>
Well how's about this for a potential answer to the problem:
Things like MIL-STD-2167a, MIL-STD-1750b, MIL-STD-498, etc., ad
nauseum, were all developed at public expense and in general are
available from some government agency at a nominal charge which
basically covers printing & shipping costs. (Reasonable enough.)
They also (so far as I know) do not have any copyright
restrictions associated with them.

Since this stuff is essentially "public domain" it ought to be
available from an FTP site where those of us who have a need to
glom onto this sort of thing can easily get it. (Sort of like
'Project Gutenberg')

In general, I have no problem with someone making an honest buck
by publishing something useful or adding value and charging for
it. (Could you imagine having an "Illuminated Manuscript" of
MIL-STD-1815a as a sort of 'collectors edition'?) I will take
exception to someone trying to lock up and charge for something
that was developed at public expense.

I agree with you on the side-bar issue of West and Mead. Laws are
written at the expense (great expense?) of the public and should,
in the general interest, be distributed as widely and
inexpensively as possible. If someone goes to the trouble of
publishing the law in a fancy, leather bound edition, they've
added value and have a right to charge for the service. But to
get a monopoly on the market by virtue of the page numbers is
really rather anti-free-market, don't you think? Monopolies
aren't generally good for the American Free Enterprise system and
hence is bad for business.

Pax,
Marin

Marin David Condic, Senior Computer Engineer    ATT:        407.796.8997
M/S 731-93                                      Technet:    796.8997
Pratt & Whitney, GESP                           Internet:   CONDICMA@PWFL.COM
P.O. Box 109600                                 Internet:   MDCONDIC@AOL.COM
West Palm Beach, FL 33410-9600
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