|
| |> After serious thinking Gerald Newton wrote :
|>>> I was asked by a friend who has a small electrical firm to check a DVD
|>>> for
|>>> him. It contained the entire 2008 NEC and was not copy protected. It was
|>>> completely accurate as to content. He purchased it for $20 from a kid
|>>> who
|>>> attends high school. I did quite a bit of snooping and found that 3 kids
|>>> from the high school are pretty good at stripping copy protection from
|>>> software. They actually check out software from the library, strip
|>>> protection, and make copies. One has a game collection that would be
|>>> envied
|>>> by Bill Gates.
|>>> I have always heard that if there is someone smart enough to add copy
|>>> protection, then there is also someone smart enough to circumvent it.
|>>
|>> The 2005 NEC was on CD was a protected PDF file and could easily be
|>> hacked using a $19 PDF ripper made in Russia as I recall. The 2008
|>> NEC on CD is not so easily done since it is in a different format.
|>> The NFPA is constantly trying to catch these people.
|>
|> I can disable any secuity feature in a PDF document.
|> You would be suprised how clever you can become when you forget your own
|> password to password protected documents.
|>
|> experience talking.
|>
|>
| Wasn't there a ruling by the 5th District Federal Court that said that if a
| city, county, etc incorporated the NEC by reference into their ordinances
| that there could be no charge for access to the ordinances?
I don't know if this was done. I do know it has been tried and failed in
some places.
The whole idea here is that there is substantial cost in developing this kind
of technical regulation. This is beyond the capability of most juridictions
to do it on their own at anywhere near the level of thoroughness the NFPA does
it now. There's also value in a national scope of consistency. If such a
ruling (especially if expanded to all districts or upheld by SCOTUS) were in
effect, it would mean that NFPA's source of funding to do the research would
be in jeopardy. The only alternative would be to charge jurisdictions for
referencing the NEC, which would be very hard to do for something anyone can
freely copy.
A proper ruling would require that the pricing be reasonable. It should be
such that the cost of publishing, printing, and distribution is covered, and
leave enough so that the "profits" cover the NFPA costs to keep the NEC up
to date on an ongoing basis. Fair use should be provided for, as well, which
should allow people discussing the issue in general. However, quoting the
NEC as consulting or engineering work product should be limited, since this
is a case of commercial gain from copying. OTOH, NFPA should provide for a
reasonable work product licensing scheme. AHJ's should not need to quote the
NEC for inspection purpose. They can simply cite the number of the paragraph(s)
that apply and possibly reference how the code applies to the inspected work.
But even if an AHJ copies the applicable paragraph for a red tag, I don't see
that as a point of commercial gain.
One fair use I do think is appropriate is for libraries to make legal copies
available for home-owner do-it-yourself people to read. Better they have an
easy means to read it than not.