Accessing the WG2 document register

[William_J_G Overington]

> Remind me why Unicode is still taking ISO to the dance? Sometimes going stag has its benefits... 


As I understand it, Unicode Inc. is a recognised guest of ISO in participating in ISO producing an International Standard.


The fact that Unicode Inc. provides a valuable public service in making documents and encoding charts freely available to all who access the www.unicode.org website is not in any way the same as the provenance that ISO has of being recognised by governments around the world as providing standards for technological matters.


I am not a lawyer, yet as I understand it, the underlying theory of standards work is that it is a legally permitted exception to a general legal prohibition of businesses meeting together to decide and agree what will be applied in industrial activity.


Thus, for example, it is fine for businesses to agree that one particular code point will be used for the symbol for the Indian Rupee, as that helps consumers in that a message between computers of different brands can be passed and read successfully.


Yet, for example, it is not permitted for businesses to meet together to decide that all computers will be in a grey plastic box, as that hinders choice for consumers.


William Overington


10 June 2015