FYI from NSAI to the 3166 Maintenance Agency and to TC46 Secretariat.
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Ireland does not support the recent decision of the ISO 3166
Maintenance Agency, reassiging "CS" (formerly Czechoslovakia) to
Serbia and Montenegro. It is believed that this will cause
non-trivial problems for data integrity and identification. Country
codes are a basic element in modern computing: all major operating
systems, business applications, identification systems, security
systems, postal services, and the internet domain-name structure all
make use of these codes. The Maintenance Agency must guarantee
stability to all user groups associated with these applications.
While the rules state that a code can be reassigned after five years,
this is considered quite unrealistic in a modern environment, where
the data will be with us for decades.
Ireland requests that the ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency take the
following actions:
1. Immediately rescind the re-assignment of the code "CS" to Serbia
and Montenegro and assign a new code to Serbia and Montenegro. We
note that SQ, SS, SW, SX, CB, CE, CJ, CQ, and CT, as well as MB, ME,
MF, MI, and MJ are available. But indeed any string other than CS
will be suitable.
2. Immediately change the policy to allow the re-use of codes only
after a significant period of time. We suggest 100 years.
--
Michael Everson
Convener, NSAI/ICTSCC/SC4
