It's not just the ISO. ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers), IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission), PIA (Plastics Industry Association), et

It's not just the ISO. ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers), IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission), PIA (Plastics Industry Association), etc. all have standards which they are supposedly trying to promulgate. There are a few standards that I've needed professionally which are freely available: the USB specs and the MIDI specs. https://usb.org/documents https://usb.org/documents https://www.midi.org/specifications https://www.midi.org/specifications When specifications needed to be printed and shipped, I understand that costs money, but electronic standards should be very low to zero cost to download. I did find that DIN (Deutsche Institut für Normung or German Institute for Standardisation) is starting to publish some of their standards for free. https://www.din.de/en/din-and-our-partners/press/press-releases/free-download-of-all-din-spec-pas-documents-at-www-beuth-de-262538 https://www.din.de/en/din-and-our-partners/press/press-relea... In the US, anything that is published by the government is supposed to be free of copyright. https://www.govinfo.gov/about/policies https://www.govinfo.gov/about/policies