Tekst
overgenomen met toestemming van:
ISO-BULLETIN, februari 2001 (COMMENT)
Geschreven door:
Mike Smith,
Director, Standards, ISO Central Secretariat
ISO copyright and the
use of ISO terminology
It is often stated that definition and agreement on terminology is the first step in any standardization process, and this is particularly true in international standardization. If different anglophone experts are using different terms for the same concept, non-anglophone experts are very quickly going to become confused, and in the worst case will find themselves unable to contribute to the standardization process. It is therefore not too surprising that most ISO technical committees establish very early in their existence a working group or subcommittee to standardize the vocabulary that will be used in the standards they develop, and it is similarly not surprising to find that there is a considerable number of vocabulary standards in the total ISO
collection.
Of course, such standards then become indispensable to anyone using the other standards developed by the particular committee concerned so that they can fully understand what particular terms mean in that particular context. Moreover, such users often wish to reproduce the terms and definitions in their own technical product documentation - and thereby comes the problem: the terms and definitions are covered by ISO's copyright. There are often repeated stories that, in order to avoid copyright infringement, some users slightly modify the terms and definitions, but that defeats the object of the original intent to standardize the vocabulary.
In order to permit use of the standardized terms and definitions therefore, the ISO Council has approved a special copyright statement to be included in vocabulary standards which will allow the terms and definitions to be reproduced in particular circumstances. "The reproduction of the terms and definitions is permitted in teaching manuals, instruction booklets, technical publications and journals for strictly educational or implementation purposes," runs the ISO Council statement. "The conditions for such reproduction are: that no modifications are made to the terms and definitions; that such reproduction is not permitted for dictionaries or similar publications offered for sale; and that this International Standard is referenced as a source document."
This means in effect, that for most non-commercial uses in the educational and technical arenas, ISO terms and definitions can be used without infringing ISO copyright, permitting greater diffusion of harmonized terminology - whence an increase in mutual understanding and a reduction in "talking at cross-purposes". Taken a step further, it is to be hoped that the overlaps, semi-overlaps, inaccuracies, ambiguities and contradictions in technical terminologies between different fields and different technical committees will gradually be eliminated by the use of consistent vocabularies across the board.
In future, one can reasonably expect that this will be extended to other types of standards, for example those standardizing codes (country and currency codes), data elements, graphical symbols and warning
signs, etc.
Until someone comes up with a new model for financing the standardization system, ISO and many of its members are going to continue to rely in part on income from sales and copyright royalties to complete their operating budgets. This new Council decision will however permit greater use of ISO's standardized vocabularies and, as is often stated, a good standard is one that is used!
urpose, and I hope that each one of you will join the effort, together and in harmony to reach our goals.
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7300 AE Apeldoorn
