Contrary to the article's suggestion, retaining copyright does "prevent bastardization of the standard by someone else who tries to publish a different version of it." One of the exclusive rights of copyright is the right to make derivative works (and to foreclose others from doing so).

The article claims that copyright is "designed to defeat" wide dissemination of standards. The author would be well-advised to reconsider this in light of open-source licenses such as the GPL, which rely on copyright protection to ensure wide dissemination of works through their viral mechanisms.