> But a "reputable" commercial entity bribing entire countries to buy an ISO 
> standard? Jesus Christ...

I don't think it was *quite* like that.  ISO is just a collection of people 
from different companies that happen to be grouped by country, it's nothing 
to do with the actual country or government or anything.  AIUI the companies 
that helped get MS through were suppliers and "friends" with MS.  This sort 
of thing happens the whole time in other industries and nobody raises an 
eyebrow, eg in the automotive industry the big ones like Ford and (in 
Europe) the collaboration between BMW, Mercedes, Audi etc often "politely 
requests" suppliers to help them get standards through.  Ditto in the 
telecoms industry, in the past Nokia practically wrote all the standards 
documents because everyone had to agree with them or risk being chucked out 
as a Nokia supplier (and hence losing a huge amount of business).  Seems 
like finally the same has happened in the software industry.

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