Open, public standards v. pay per view standards and usage

From: Walter Lewis <lewisw_at_nyob> Date: Mon, 13 Jul 2009 12:22:03 -0400 To: CODE4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU

Are there any blindingly obvious examples of instances where
     a) a standards group produced a standard published by a body which 
charged for access to it
and
    b) a alternative standards groups produced a competing standard that 
was openly accessible
and the work of group a) was rendered totally irrelevant because most 
non-commercial work ignored it in favour of b).

My instinct is to quote the battle between OSI (ISO) and TCP/IP (IETF 
RFCs).  Does that strike others as appropriate?

Any examples closer to the library world?

Walter Lewis