[throw0101a]

I have no knowledge of the internal workings of ISO, and whether the current arrangement is absolutely necessary or just legacy/habit from the past. Perhaps a different funding model for the organization could be done.

I'm not against the standards being freely available if it can be arranged, I just find it slightly annoying that many people seem to be acting like ISO is some moustache-twirling, evil mega-corp that is exploiting the workers because it charges a fee currently.

[necovek]

People are bringing up facts that ISO is heavily funded by member countries (from taxes collected from their citizens), ISO standards are written by others at no cost to ISO, and yet ISO charges not-just-nominal fee for their distribution — exactly for people who "have no knowledge of the internal workings of ISO".

Nobody is acting as if they are exploiting anyone, but many are unaware of the situation above. Whether one finds that fair is up to everyone individually, but perhaps you can allow that finding it unfair is a reasonable viewpoint as well?