Standards Availability
I have been thinking about the program we have been working
on to make 802 standards freely available, and I have
come to the conclusion that the program as currently described
is unlikely to succeed. The are too many parties, too many issues,
too much administration, and too many risks.
I would like to propose a simpler program structure for your
consideration. Briefly stated, it is as follows:
1) IEEE may always charge a reasonable fee for paper copies of
a standard.
2) IEEE may charge a reasonable fee (where reasonable is defined
to be "similar to the current fee structure") for PDF copies of
a standard for the period of one year from the date the standard
is approved.
3) After one year from the date of approval, PDF copies of the
standard are available free of charge. IEEE retains it's copyright.
Reprinting or redistribution is prohibited.
4) To make up for the lost revenue that the IEEE would have normally
received, IEEE 802 agrees to remit approximately $100K to the IEEE
standards office each calendar year.
The rationale for this approach is:
A) There is a cost associated with printing and mailing a paper copy,
and IEEE should be allowed to recover this cost.
B) There is a cost associated with editing and publishing a standard,
and IEEE should be allowed to recover this cost. This proposal gives
IEEE the opportunity to recover the cost as quickly as possible, and
during the period where the retail value of the standard is probably
the highest.
C) Once the startup costs are recovered, the costs associated with
maintaining access to the PDF archives are minimal.
D) The $100K contribution from IEEE 802 will make up for the revenue
lost by the IEEE from the sale of "old" standards.
E) By eliminating all of the corporate sponsorship elements of the
previous proposal, we make the program considerable simpler to implement
and administer on an ongoing basis.
F) Most importantly, the only parties to this deal are the membership
of 802, and the IEEE staff. That gives us some hope of being able
to reach closure, and once these parties decide it's a go, the program will
succeed, with no external dependencies or uncertainties.
Respectfully submitted for your consideration.
Howard Frazier
IEEE P802 LMSC Recording Secretary
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