Codes and standards

[BillConnerFASTC]

Just got an interesting - press release from ICC (code organization) on a topic that has come up a time or two, regarding the codes not being free.

Supreme Court decision bolsters ICC's copyright case​

The International Code Council initiated litigation against UpCodes for the wholesale copying of the International Codes (I-Codes) without permission. UpCodes' defense has been that the I-Codes are not copyrightable because they are adopted by various governmental authorities and have the force of law. In a decision issued on April 27, the U.S. Supreme Court expressly rejected UpCodes' defense, holding that instead of examining whether something carries 'the force of law,' we ask only whether the author of the work is a judge or a legislator."

The Supreme Court case, Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org., considered whether Georgia could claim copyright in annotations to the Georgia code. While the author of a work owns the copyright upon creation, there is a narrow exception to this rule called the government edicts doctrine. The Supreme Court made clear that under the government edicts doctrine "copyright does not vest in works that are (1) created by judges and legislators (2) in the course of their judicial and legislative duties." The Supreme Court concluded that the annotations to the Georgia Code met the two-part government edicts test, and thus, were not copyrightable.

The I-Codes do not meet either requirement of the government edicts doctrine – the codes were developed by the Code Council, a private, nonprofit organization that has no judicial or legislative function. The Supreme Court decision confirms that the I-Codes are entitled to copyright protection.


Accordingly, UpCodes' wholesale copying of the I-Codes for its shareholder's personal benefit constitutes willful copyright infringement. They are profiting off their unlawful use of the I-Codes. Their copyright infringement directly undermines the safety of our communities by harming the Code Council's ability to continue to fund the development of the codes.

For more resources on the importance of copyright, please visit www.iccsafe.org/copyright-protection.

You can also listen to two recent ICC Pulse Podcast episodes on the issue: A Member Perspective with Glenn Mathewson and Copyright Issues and the I-Codes with Mark Johnson and Mel Oncu.

 

[Kristi R-C]

Kind of hard to follow the rules if you can't read them.

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

They are available, either for free at a library or for purchase. There are real costs to develop and publish and support them. The options, taxpayers or manufactures, would be tragic.

 

[MNicolai]

Kind of hard to follow the rules if you can't read them.

There's still the web portal for free viewing. My company subscribes to a broader code library that allows us access to NFPA, IBC, IECC, FGI, etc, and allows for better text searching and copy/paste, but I would say the vast majority the people in our company just look ICC's free web portal.

Digital Codes

ICC Digital Codes is the largest provider of model codes, custom codes and standards used worldwide to construct safe, sustainable, affordable and resilient structures.

codes.iccsafe.org

 

[RickR]

The core issue is the difference between the law makers and the code writers. I completely agree that the ICC deserves to be paid for their valuable work. On the other hand laws must be published as widely as possible to encourage compliance.

If only governments would pay the code writers. A yearly license? But then someone will try to cut costs and write their own codes...

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

If you're building a new building, is cost of the book going to put you over budget? You're a designer or architect or engineer to make a living with computers and cad and everything else and you can't afford a book? Buying the code book is a minor expense and assures a fairness and openness and quality and services that government does not come close to.

 

[DuckJordan]

If you're building a new building, is cost of the book going to put you over budget? You're a designer or architect or engineer to make a living with computers and cad and everything else and you can't afford a book? Buying the code book is a minor expense and assures a fairness and openness and quality and services that government does not come close to.

What about the smaller operations who are doing a small modification or looking at possible options to existing structure but do modify code related infrastructure. I know that one of my employers would have a hard time purchasing a book for a renovation as an added cost to said renovation.

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

If it's really small and not but a few thousand dollars or less, hard to think that looking online or in the library isn't sufficient. If it's more than that, it probably requires a building permit, and review of design professionals. https://codes.iccsafe.org/content/IBC2015 Look, do a screenshot of a relevant section. Hard to imagine if you need much more the cost of the material and labor and permits does not far surpass the cost of the book.

I find the alternatives of not having the codes written by volunteers in an open and fair and democratic process where everyone can be heard and can participate in the debate much worse if not downright frightening and dangerous.

 

[TimMc]

What about the smaller operations who are doing a small modification or looking at possible options to existing structure but do modify code related infrastructure. I know that one of my employers would have a hard time purchasing a book for a renovation as an added cost to said renovation.

So why not contact the Authority Having Jurisdiction and ask them if there are any Code considerations (I ask "what's new that might affect this project?") that I should be aware of. One of the local AHJ persons is a cranky bastard who says "you need to hire an architect" and the other 2 are very helpful.

If you're thinking you need to know more about what a Code requires the chances are very good that your facility needs to engage an architect or engineer. Remember that your venue (and perhaps you, personally) will be on the hook if you do a DIY project that fails in a way that results in property damage or deaths/injuries to humans. The way to mostly avoid such occurrences is to retain professionals early in the process. They're cheaper than re-work or legal actions.

 

[MNicolai]

I agree with @TimMc. There comes a point where you should be engaging a professional. Codes are branches upon branches of requirements that often require a working knowledge of how codes are interpreted before you can navigate them effectively. Low-voltage cabling, for example -- you can find plenty of stringent requirements for it elsewhere in the NEC but miss that your application falls under Article 800 Communications Circuits, and that Art 800 is largely exempt of other requirements of the NEC. Or how NFPA 101 Life Safety Code intersects with IBC and how both of those intersect with local codes and OSHA workplace safety requirements.

It can be a pretty wide gap between being able to hunt and peck through a code book for a particular thing and actually having a working familiarity with how AHJ's and architects/engineers have interpreted certain circumstances and navigated compliance on previous projects.

But again -- many codes are available online via free viewer, so I'm not sure what the big deal is here. I also use Municode quite a bit when looking into local noise ordinances.