copyrighting standards to avoid their modification

[John Gilmore]

> There is also a specific problem with the release of machine-readable forms
> of standards:  the possibility of mutated versions without warnings of the
> mutations.  This is, unfortunately, *not* an imaginary problem; it really
> has happened.  At least some of the people involved in setting ANSI and
> IEEE policy on such things consider this the more important consideration,
> or so I am told.

There's an easy fix for this:  They just copyright the standard, release
the machine-readable forms, but only give permission to distribute
*unmodified* copies.

If somebody runs it through a document scanner and distributes perfect,
machine-readable copies (unlikely, given the current state of document
scanning), what are they going to do, sue the guy for copyright violation?
Gee, that's just what they would have to do to stop somebody who distributed
a *modified* machine readable copy, had they released one.

So that can't be the reason.  I still think it's pure profit motive, and
wonder that the committee of our peers who wrote it don't claim their
own copyright on it, permitting redistribution, and only allow ANSI to
distribute it if ANSI permits it to be redistributed.  Sort of like the
GNU copyright...
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