ISO reaffirms free-of-charge use of its country, currency and language codes

[Terry Langendoen]

Hi everyone, in response to the recent posting to this list
regarding the possibility that ISO (the International
Organization for Standardization) would begin charging for the
use of certain of its codes, it issued the following press
release, which I obtained from its website
http://www.iso.org/iso/en/commcentre/pressreleases/2003/Ref871.html

Terry
*****

Ref.: 871
30 September 2003

ISO reaffirms free-of-charge use of its country, currency and
language codes


ISO issues the following statement in response to recently
publicized misunderstandings of its current practice and
intentions regarding its widely used country, currency and
language codes.


ISO is to continue with its established practice of allowing
free-of-charge use of its country, currency and language codes
from, respectively, the ISO 3166, ISO 4127 and ISO 639 standards,
in commercial and other applications.


There is no proposal currently being considered by ISO to impose
charges for use of these codes, including on the World Wide Web
and in software applications.

Based on international consensus reached within the ISO standards
development system, these codes reduce the confusion that could
be created if there were multiple, conflicting codes in common
use. The development of the Web and of electronic commerce has
been facilitated by the existence of the ISO standardized codes
and their use has become pervasive.


ISO encourages such developments by making the two-letter country
codes contained in ISO 3166 available free of charge on ISO's Web
site, along with a great deal of regularly updated information
related to the codes and their use. The ISO Web site also has
hyperlinks to the sites of the British Standards Institution
(BSI) and the US Library of Congress - where the currency and
language codes are, respectively, publicly available.


The full ISO 3166, ISO 4127 and ISO 639 standards from which
these codes are drawn are available from ISO and its members on a
sales basis, as a contribution to supporting the standards
development process. However, ISO and its members do not charge
for the use made of the codes contained in these standards,
subject to this being consistent with ISO's copyright. For
example, ISO does not charge organizations for the inclusion of
the country codes in their Internet domain names, and ISO does
not charge banks for using the currency codes in their electronic
financial transactions.


If a user of the codes, such as a software developer, wishes to
claim that its product incorporates the codes in conformity with
the ISO standards (which could be perceived by the market as an
added value), then it would have an interest in buying the
standards to make sure that this is indeed the case. But this is
a "one-off" transaction for purchase of the standards; ISO does
not subsequently charge a fee for use of the codes in the
software product and has no plans for doing so.


Like many organizations, ISO continually reviews its practices
and products in order to provide added value to its customers.
With regard to ISO 3166, ISO is considering a proposal to develop
an optional software service package that would facilitate
incorporation and maintenance of the country codes in IT
products. The service package being considered would include
regular updating of the codes, which would add value to products
because they would be conforming to the International Standard
ISO 3166. The service package being considered would be a charged
option. However, no decision has yet been made to go ahead and
even if this option were developed, ISO will continue to allow
use of its country, currency and language codes free of charge.

Press contact:

Roger Frost
Press and Communication Manager
Public Relations Services
Tel. +41 22 749 01 11
Fax +41 22 733 34 30
E-mail frost at iso.org