[LINK] Australian standards blocked from open access

[Glen Turner]

On 08/07/09 08:42, Tom Worthington wrote:
> The result is that SAI Global has exclusive publishing rights for
> standards issued by Standards Australia, even those standards
> developed by a third party. The effect of this would appear to
> preclude the provision of any SA endorsed standards in an open access
> format free online.

In short, the concerns about Australian Standards becoming a mechanism
for secret law have been borne out.

This doesn't effect IT much --- ISO and its national bodies have historically
handled ICT standards so poorly as to make ISO irrelevant (the OOXML saga
merely being the latest demonstration of this).

It is of huge concern in other fields, such as construction, where
Australian Standards have been references in legislation, but the
standards are not available at a fair price for those who need the
full detail of the law.

-- 
  Glen Turner   <http://www.gdt.id.au/~gdt/>