US Appeals Court allows free access to technical standards

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Lias

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#307080 18-Sep-2023 07:53

Interesting (to me at least) case that I hope will eventually be followed in NZ.

TL;DR, in the US a federal appeals court has ruled that technical standards that are incorporated into laws can be distributed without being liable for copyright infringement.

If NZ introduced something similar it would allow all the AS/NZS standards (amongst others) referenced in our laws to be distributed free rather than each costing hundreds or thousands of dollars.

edit updated to say hundreds or thousands as per below discussion

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Bung

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#3128884 18-Sep-2023 08:19

Give an example of one costing $000s. NZ has already made building standards that aren't joint AS/NZS available. Anything joint would need Australian buy in. Electrical standards are available to practitioners through the EWRB.

Lias

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#3128889 18-Sep-2023 08:40

Bung: Give an example of one costing $000s. NZ has already made building standards that aren't joint AS/NZS available. Anything joint would need Australian buy in. Electrical standards are available to practitioners through the EWRB.

I can't quickly find one costing $000s, looks like most of them are 00's rather than 000's, but when I wanted to read one a few years ago out of curiosity about something, I remember the price being $1300 or so.

It doesn't need buy in, because all being done without the publisher's consent, it's just basically removing the copyright from anything that's referenced in legislation.

I think you're really missing the point with the EWRB reference, the standards should be available and free for _everyone_ if they are part of the law.

Bung

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#3128891 18-Sep-2023 09:05

Free for everyone will morph into everyone will contribute taxes to maintaining the standards. The trend had been user pays as many standards were for industries requiring some form of licensing. MBIE sponsor building standards as the work no longer needing building consent largely doesn't need an LBP but does need to meet building codes.

US case involves privately developed standards. Those industry bodies will probably expect US government funding.

Lias

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#3128895 18-Sep-2023 09:26

Bung: Free for everyone will morph into everyone will contribute taxes to maintaining the standards. The trend had been user pays as many standards were for industries requiring some form of licensing. MBIE sponsor building standards as the work no longer needing building consent largely doesn't need an LBP but does need to meet building codes.

US case involves privately developed standards. Those industry bodies will probably expect US government funding.

You may have a valid point on the funding. I personally don't think the current model where things are referenced in legislation but not freely available to the public is good. Maybe they could be free for non commercial use but walled behind RealMe or something with commercial users still paying.

mkissin

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#3128912 18-Sep-2023 10:06

I'm actively involved in several standards bodies and it's an absolute travesty that they're so expensive, especially when enshrined in law.

Perhaps they might not need to be free, but they should be trivially expensive. The primary costs in their development are borne by private companies anyway rather than the overseeing/distribution bodies.

That's not to say there are no other costs, but it's nowhere near what you would think by the cost to get hold of the final standard.

Similar argument of course about scientific publishing and university textbooks.

frankv

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#3129248 19-Sep-2023 08:43

Lias:

TL;DR, in the US a federal appeals court has ruled that technical standards that are incorporated into laws can be distributed without being liable for copyright infringement.

This might be helpful for NZers, since it means that any technical standards that are incorporated in both NZ and US laws will be available for free. However, you might need a US VPN to get them.