This International Standard specifies the procedure to be followed by a Registration Authority in preparing, maintaining and publishing an International Register of numeric identifiers allocated to algorithms for the lossless compression of data, excluding cryptographic algorithms. For the purpose of this International Standard, an algorithm is a set of rules for the transformation of the coded representation of data from one form to another, which allows the lossless restitution of the original form. An identifier registered in accordance with this International Standard serves as an identification of the algorithm associated with it in the Register. Apart from such identification, registration does not affect the status of the algorithm concerned. Thus, the registration procedure must be clearly distinguished from the standardization process.