Yep, this is my bête noire too. It gets even worse. I am working on software that confirms to guidelines set by the Dutch government for handling healthcare da

Yep, this is my bête noire too. It gets even worse. I am working on software that confirms to guidelines set by the Dutch government for handling healthcare data. These Dutch national standards were actually (and justly!) made free instead of available at a fee because they became requirements instead of just guidelines. But these standards are (naturally) based on international standards. This is fine for the RFC's that are freely available, but for the three (!) relevant Dutch standards (NEN 7510, 7512, 7513) you would need access to another forty-ish (!!) ISO standards that may, or may not, be relevant to the section you are dealing with. Of course even a single PDF for these healthcare ISO standards costs up to €100, to be paid in Swiss Francs…