The IEEE and their policy on publication of standards.

The IEEE is a standardization body. Being a Linux network developer, access to their 802.x standards is sometimes quite valuable. A couple of years ago they introduced the "Get 802" program, where they would make available the 802 standards family some time after publication. This is great.

However, I recently needed a copy of the current draft of the 802.11e standard. They charge USD60 for this, which is a reasonable fee that I was willing to pay.

However, they only seem to be offering in some proprietary DRM format. This is totally unacceptable, since it would requires installation of the purchase and installation a proprietary operating system.

Networks (and especially the Internet) are built upon open and publicly available standards. Free and Open Source projects can only implement industry standards if they can actually access those standards. The availability of such standards is therefore an important aspect of their fast implementation and adoption.

I very much understand the requirement of standards organizations to charge reasonable fees (such as USD60 for the 802.11E draft) for purchasing copies of it.

However, after obtaining such a copy, I would like to print it or pages of it, I would like to view it on all of my computers, and I wan to do so while staying offline without any authentication that (I suppose) your DRM system requires.

By putting such incredible obstacles between the developers and the standardization body, they will achieve nothing but frustration and hamper the adoption of the standards which they care about.