This outcome was pretty important. Companies can't charge you because they hold the copyright to the details of a law.
**Appeals Court Upholds Public.Resource.Org’s Right to Post Public Laws and Regulations Online | Electronic Frontier Foundation** • https://www.eff.org/press/releases/appeals-court-upholds-publicresourceorgs-right-post-public-laws-and-regulations
#technology #law #copyright #copywrong
Appeals Court Upholds Public.Resource.Org’s Right to Post Public Laws and Regulations Online
SAN FRANCISCO—Technical standards like fire and electrical codes developed by private organizations but incorporated into public law can be freely disseminated without any liability for copyright infringement, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.Electronic Frontier Foundation
like this
Secret Hippie
•.
Karl Auerbach
•This is a long ongoing fight and Carl Malmud deserves a prize for his work.
One of the first cases in this was back in the late 1990s when Peter Veeck tried to publish local building codes. (BTW I have met Peter V. and know his attorney, Eric W.)
Veeck v. Southern Building Code Congress Int'l, Inc., 293 F.3d 791 (5th Cir. 2002)
https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F3/293/791/521953/
There is a residual question, particularly in the context of building codes, about how we cover the costs of developing those codes.
BTW, recently we were required by a customer to paint our products a particular shade of International Orange (so that they would be easy to spot and less likely to be left inside aircraft and rockets.) We were given a Federal standard for the paint color, only to discover that it is now a pay-through-the-nose standard via the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE.) (Fortunately we were able to simply mail-order a spray can of the stuff from a company in Texas.)
Veeck v. Southern Building Code Congress Int'l, Inc., 293 F.3d 791 (5th Cir. 2002)
Justia Law