David Starner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > > The notion that > > standards do not get out of date can't be meant seriously in a world of > > SQL92, IPv6, C89, etc. etc. > > IPv6 and C99 didn't change IPv4 or C89, did they?
When writing a new version of a standard it is often convenient to borrow text from the previous version, as the alternative is either to just list the differences, thereby forcing the reader to constantly refer to the old standard and risk getting confused, or to rewrite everything from scratch, thereby risking accidental differences between the two versions. So the standard should have a licence that allows a new standard to reuse text from it, even if the new standard is produced by a different organisation (the old organisation might have disappeared). But of course it is quite reasonable for the licence to demand that the name be changed when a derivative work is made in this fashion. Edmund
