No One Can Own The Law—So Why Is Congress Advancing A Bill To Extend Copyright To It? from the don’t-lock-up-the-law dept
Last week, the US House of Representatives Judiciary Committee voted to advance the Protecting and Enhancing Public Access to Codes Act, or the Pro Codes Act (H.R. 1631), to the full House. The bill would extend copyright protection to codes (such as building codes) that are developed by standards development organizations (SDOs) and incorporated by reference into local, state, and federal laws, as long as the SDOs make the codes “available to the public free of charge online in a manner that does not substantially disrupt the ability of those organizations to earn revenue.”
NHTSA references several SAE standards in their regulations, but they don’t update the references very often, if ever. Many of the referenced standards date back to versions from the '70s and '80s. Back around 2012 I contacted SAE to find out if they provided a package of standards incorporated by reference in NHTSA regulations. I was told they don’t provide such a package, and they couldn’t even sell me the individual standards I needed because they were “out of date”. My only option through SAE was to buy the latest version.
Shortly afterwards Public.Resource.Org posted the standards, and I copied them. But I thought they had lost their court case.
Nice to find out I was wrong.