[woodrowbarlow]

that's nothing new. draft versions are usually released for free, but the final ISO standards have always required fees for access and the copyright for the documents belongs to ISO. a standard for the C programming language, for example, will run about $200. average developers don't usually need access to the standard, as they will be working with an implementation of the standard anyway (which should be providing its own documentation).

[b3tt3rw0rs3]

Many standards are also available via the national standards body of your locale (e.g. ANSI), often at a cheaper rate.