That's true. ITU-T standards (eg for ATM and OSI protocols) used to be really expensive. Buy one 8 page document for 50$, realize that this is mostly a collecti

That's true. ITU-T standards (eg for ATM and OSI protocols) used to be really expensive. Buy one 8 page document for 50$, realize that this is mostly a collection of references to other documents, keep buying until you have all the information. This takes a lot of time, as the documents aren't available online. Or you go to a university library with a notebook ("making a copy is strictly forbidden"). It was a system that shut out small companies. Or you implement IETF RfCs. There's an FTP server with all standards documents. If you have just email but no Internet yet (think uucp mail or bbs), there's a service where you can request documents to be sent to you.