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ISO Central Secretariat
Case postale 56
CH - 1211 Genève 20
Switzerland
Fax + 41 22 733 34 30
E-mail Smoot@iso.org
Web www.iso.org
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Oliver R. Smoot
President of ISO
PRES
2003-09-30
Mr. Tim Berners-Lee, Director, and
Mr. Steven R. Bratt, Chief Operating Officer
W3C World Wide Web Consortium
MIT/LCS
200 Technology Square
CAMBRIDGE, MA 02139
U S A
Dear Mr. Berners-Lee and Mr. Bratt,
Thank you for your letter of 18 September 2003.
I appreciate your concerns, which I believe are generated by a misunderstanding that I shall attempt to dissipate.
Firstly, however, please allow me to reassure you on the central point of your concerns:
I am in agreement with you about the pervasive use made of these codes on the World Wide Web and ISO concurs with your appreciation of their harmonizing influence and role in reducing confusion. The development of the Web, and of electronic commerce, has not only been facilitated by the existence of the ISO codes—based on international consensus—but has stimulated their diffusion worldwide. The use of the country codes in Internet domain names is a striking example.
ISO encourages this synergy by making the two-letter country codes contained in ISO 3166 available free of charge on ISO's Web site, along with a great deal of regularly updated information related to the codes and their use. The ISO Web site also has hyperlinks to the sites of the British Standards Institution (BSI) and the US Library of Congress—where the currency and language codes are, respectively, publicly available.
The full ISO 3166, ISO 4127 and ISO 639 standards from which these codes are drawn are available from ISO and its members on a sales basis, as a contribution to supporting the standards development process. However, ISO and its members do not charge for the use made of the codes contained in these standards, subject to this being consistent with ISO's copyright. For example, ISO does not charge organizations for the inclusion of the country codes in their Internet domain names, and ISO does not charge banks for using the currency codes in their electronic financial transactions.
If a user of the codes, such as a software developer, wishes to claim that its product incorporates the codes in conformity with the ISO standards (which could be perceived by the market as an added value), then it would have an interest in buying the standards to make sure that this is indeed the case. But this is a "one-off" transaction for purchase of the standards; ISO does not subsequently charge a fee for use of the codes in the software product and has no plans for doing so.
Like many organizations, ISO continually reviews its practices and products in order to provide added value to its customers. With regard to ISO 3166, ISO is considering a proposal to develop an optional software service package that would facilitate incorporation and maintenance of the country codes in IT products. The service package being considered would include regular updating of the codes, which would add value to products because they would be conforming to the International Standard ISO 3166. The service package being considered would be a charged option. However, no decision has yet been made to go ahead and even if this option were developed, ISO will continue to allow use of its country, currency and language codes free of charge.
I hope that the above assurances and explanations answer your concerns and dispel any erroneous interpretations of ISO's current practice and intentions with regard to our country, currency and language codes.
Yours sincerely,
Oliver R. Smoot