Building Codes and Copyright

I have been in discussions for a couple years with folks over copyright law and building codes and would enjoy your thoughts on it. I'll start with a bit of background.

NFPA (national fire protection assoc) writes and publishes the National Electrical Code (NEC) and has done so for over 70 years.

it is a book of standards and practices for electrical installations. As the originator of the work, the NFPA claims copyrights to it.

the NEC is accepted, most often exactly as written, as the codes applicable to electrical installations across the country.

the NFPA has included a notice that they do not permit any code board to include the NEC verbatim into the codes but has only allowed it's inclusion by reference. As such the NFPA has not granted any entity license to reproduce the NEC.

the problem comes with when there is a law, it is not able to be granted any form of copyright protections and there in is the problem.

in 2003, the 5th district federal court of appeals has ruled that the NFPA cannot claim copyrights to their own book as the courts deem it to be considered to be a law and since you cannot copyright a law, there can be no copyright protection for the NFPA.

the NFPA still claims they have copyright protection and as such can refuse to allow any other entity to copy their works but since the government agancies have accepted it as their law, they must be able to provide copies to the public.

so, what are your thoughts?

and if anybody cares to read it, the decision concerning this:


http://www.altlaw.org/v1/cases/131504

It seems the NFPA has no claim of copyright infringement if an entity does post it. They seem to be saying they will sue them anyway, regardless of any decision that quite appears to bar them from doing so. It is a basic threat of, if you do it, "We will sue you anyway and we will be litigating for years, and you will spend money you don't want to, I will take up your time, and we will be ferocious with our attorneys".

The person who does it better be prepared for a legal fight, but it seems clear if he is sued Summary Judgment is quickly available as there would be seem to be "NO genuine material facts" to argue.

The lawsuit, IMO, would be = to a basic SLAPP, so to say, Strategic lawsuit against public participation. NOW, this example is just to show that frivolous lawsuits can be filed, SLAPP is not applicable here.

In SLAPP, a citizen speaks out, say against high water bills, they slapp him with a lawsuit to shut him up. Many people will shut up just with the "threat" of a lawsuit, as the ordinary Joe can not afford to be sued, vexatious litigation or not.

just so you know, I am on the side of the NFPA and them maintaining their rights even though I have to spend $75+ every 3 years to purchase a new code book.

they are a private entity that develops these standards. They give notice they do not allow the grab of their property and only allow license to include their work in the law by reference. That act, obviously, is intended to keep the NEC from being reprinted verbatim as code/law.

I understand the governments point that all laws must be available to the public. As such, the gov is more than welcome to hire engineers, etc. to set down and write a set of standards and enact them into law. As it stands, the gov rides on the back of the NFPA and allows the NFPA to expend money, time, and effort to develop their standards and they are summarily taken from them with not a penny of compensation.

If the NFPA is not allowed to control their creation, they will lose a very valuable source of funding used to create that very same creation. The end result, in a worst case scenario, would be the NFPA refuses to continue to create and, very importantly, improve and refine those codes. This could result in a at least a couple different problems I can see:

the standards fail to be refined which means new technology, new methods, and problem resolutions which would improve the standards will stop. That is a great disservice to society.

the government will have to step in and do what the NFPA does now currently. That will be a huge expenditure for any given area but additionally, it will remove a national standard system we now enjoy and benefit from.


Is there a solution?