I just realized many of the recent pdfs on the [C Standard working group](http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg14/) [archives](http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg14/www/wg14_document_log.htm) are now password protected! For example the latest draft of the C Standard aka C18 is [here](http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg14/www/docs/n2177.pdf)

What prompted such a backwards move against common sense when C++, java, javascript and all recent programming languages are completely open! What is going on?

I'm not asking if anyone knows the password, sharing it would be illegal anyway, but voiding access to the general public seems counterproductive, especially for students and programmers.

What can be done to bring this work to the public domain where it belongs?