MPEG-FAQ 4.1:

What are the MPEG standard documents ?

From: billd@cray.com (Bill Davidson)

Date: 21 Apr 94 02:16:32 MET

I just connected to the Document Center WAIS server at wais.service.com
to find out what MPEG documents cost.  This is what I found:

Title							Pages	Price(US$)

ISO/IEC-11172-1 - PART 1: SYSTEMS, INFORMATION		60	158.75
	TECHNOLOGY - CODING OF MOVING PICTURES &
	ASSOCIATED AUDIO FOR

ISO/IEC-11172-2 - PART 2: VIDEO, INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY	122	204.00
	- CODING MOVING PICTURES & ASSOCIATED AUDIO FOR
	DIGI

ISO/IEC-11172-3 - PART 3: AUDIO, INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY	157	214.25
	- CODING OF MOVING PICTURES & ASSOCIATED AUDIO
	FOR D

ISO/IEC-CD-11172 - INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY - CODING OF	0	207.00
	OF MOVING PICTURES & ASSOCIATED AUDIO - FOR
	DIGITAL STORAGE

Is this a mistake or are standards documents really rediculously
priced?  Since these would be for my own personal use, I have to pay
for them out of my own personal pocket.  Just one of these eats my book
budget for quite a while.

I realize that they have to make money but this has got to be about a
1000% markup over printing costs; even assuming low volumes.