Sadly norms are often copyrighted and quite expensive to get a copy, even the mandated ones. I think this is highly inhibitive for the overall economy.
Having been forced to spend thousands on Fire Safety codebooks every year in order to maintain a professional knowledgebase in my previous career, I feel the whole thing is a racket, especially the selling of digital versions.
One of the worst parts of the whole system is most Codes refence other Codes in their prefixes. EG: Unless otherwise stated with this document the rules from XYZ Code are to be followed. This makes for a very deep and expensive CMA rabbit hole when you are required to purchase (or subscribe to) all these publications.