[grive]

When you buy an ISO standard, it is marked by the buyer ID.

To make it publicly available, you need to strip it. That means the file must be modified, and the tampered copy must be stored somewhere.

Sci-hub has a different model: it is decentralized because it lends credentials to download protected articles. It does not store them. It cannot remain decentralized if it stored or cached the content.

I looked into it to write a QR-code tool. Getting the standard was a bullshit process and I wasn't going to pay that much for a side-project. I did not write the tool as a result, even though I'm not happy with the one existing on linux (though, thanks a lot to its author, who did so using the standard at personal cost for public benefit).

The solution I found was to buy it properly, but go through eastern-Europe countries, to make it cheaper. Still bullshit to have to buy a standard for common tooling necessary to interact with everyday life.

[Kliment]

Sci-hub does in fact cache and store everything. They have articles available that are no longer available from the original source.

[grive]

Indeed! I was working with false assumptions, thanks for correcting them.

[matheusmoreira]

> I looked into it to write a QR-code tool.

> Getting the standard was a bullshit process and I wasn't going to pay that much for a side-project.

I was once in a similar situation. Needed the document in order to understand QR codes so I could contribute to the zbar project. Was forced to use some outdated draft I found online.

I simply don't understand the point of this gatekeeping. IETF RFCs are how things should be done.

[spicybright]

$$$$$

[matheusmoreira]

Are they really making that much money? The audience for these documents is as niche as it gets.

[spicybright]

Very niche for sure. But it's like the rest of the publishing industry. They have something you need and are the only ones that have it, so they can charge anything they want.

If $500 for a copy on an iso about home network security is true (as another commenter pointed out), I'm sure they charge similar if not more for the popular ones companies rely on.