2014 NEC Book

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infinity

infinity

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I've received countless offers from the NFPA to pre-order the new code book at a reduced price. Does anyone know if this will include a free code book download like the 2011 NEC?
 
infinity said:
I've received countless offers from the NFPA to pre-order the new code book at a reduced price. Does anyone know if this will include a free code book download like the 2011 NEC?
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No it does not Rob. I had inquired because I need to ubdate all of my codes and I want all to be digital so that I can cut and paste.

NECPLUS is what I am using and it is only $170 per year and gives you pre- codes back to 2000
 
Gregg Harris said:
No it does not Rob. I had inquired because I need to ubdate all of my codes and I want all to be digital so that I can cut and paste.
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That's what I had figured. With all of the money they have spent sending me paper offers that ended up in the garbage they could have included the digital version for free. :roll:
 
infinity said:
That's what I had figured. With all of the money they have spent sending me paper offers that ended up in the garbage they could have included the digital version for free. :roll:
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Most likely, they've realized the potentially huge money stream of the .pdf version in today's digital age. It would not surprise me one bit that some day the e-version will cost more than the dead-tree version... and that's not saying the printed copy will come down in price due to lack of demand.
 
Gregg Harris said:
No it does not Rob. I had inquired because I need to ubdate all of my codes and I want all to be digital so that I can cut and paste.

NECPLUS is what I am using and it is only $170 per year and gives you pre- codes back to 2000
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Any idea if subscription to NEC plus will send hard copy of the new code? I already had two copies of 2011 and after I subscribed to NEC plus they sent me another hard copy of 2011.

I don't remember what my subscription to NEC plus was but I was thinking it was close to $100 per year, not $170.
 
ptonsparky said:
I order our NEC stuff from an area organization that in the past had very good pricing. Not so this year. Everything was higher.:jawdrop:
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NIEC by any chance? I ordered last two codes early from them at a good price, I haven't checked with them yet this time but the NFPA offers I recently received looked pretty good or at least about same compared to what NIEC gave me the last two times.
 
kwired said:
NIEC by any chance? I ordered last two codes early from them at a good price, I haven't checked with them yet this time but the NFPA offers I recently received looked pretty good or at least about same compared to what NIEC gave me the last two times.
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Yes, I order copies for all the help, some spares, etc. The online version would be nice if I had access everywhere I was.
 
ptonsparky said:
Yes, I order copies for all the help, some spares, etc. The online version would be nice if I had access everywhere I was.
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One thing I dislike about NEC plus, they apparently don't realize some of us don't always have internet access. The old CD Rom versions worked regardless of internet access. Next best step is the PDF versions, but I find them not as easy to navigate. I also found the old CD Rom versions easier to navigate than NEC plus and wish they would make some changes to NEC plus.
 
The current PDFs only link to the Article level from the index. The older ones linked to the section level. It is much easier to use when you have a link to the section level.
 
From Wikipedia (the online source of all truth ;)):
The NEC is available as a bound book containing approximately 1000 pages. It has been available in electronic form since the 1993 edition. Although the code is updated every three years, some jurisdictions do not immediately adopt the new edition.
The NEC is also available as a restricted, digitized coding model that can be read online but not saved, copied and pasted, or printed, free of charge on certain computing platforms that support the restricted viewer software.
In the United States, statutory law cannot be copyrighted and is freely accessible and copyable by anyone.[4] When a standards organization develops a new coding model and it is not yet accepted by any jurisdiction as law, it is still the private property of the standards organization and the reader may be restricted from downloading or printing the text for offline viewing. For that privilege, the coding model must still be purchased as either printed media or a CD-ROM. Once the coding model has been accepted as law, it loses copyright protection and may be freely obtained at no cost.
Archive.org and many state or local government sites allow download of the NEC without the registration that the NFPA requires.
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My employers buy the NEC handbook (the commentary, not being part of the language of the Code, is still copyrighted), but for what I do on my own time I just use a freely downloaded PDF of the Code itself. Unless you need to see the wording of the Code before it's been adopted anywhere, it doesn't really matter what NFPA charges for the PDF since it loses copyright protection the minute it's adopted into law.
 
JDBrown said:
My employers buy the NEC handbook (the commentary, not being part of the language of the Code, is still copyrighted), but for what I do on my own time I just use a freely downloaded PDF of the Code itself. Unless you need to see the wording of the Code before it's been adopted anywhere, it doesn't really matter what NFPA charges for the PDF since it loses copyright protection the minute it's adopted into law.
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I don't think it is quite that simple, otherwise why not wait until code is adopted then you should be able to get free hard copies as well as digital media versions.

NFPA can still sell copies of their products, if a publication is adopted as a law, then the jurisdiction making this a law has to give us reference to what the law is and even can make copies of applicable parts when necessary.

Even on a forum such as this one under copyright laws I believe you can quote copyrighted material but you must give the proper credit to where the quote came from.
 
kwired said:
.........Even on a forum such as this one under copyright laws I believe you can quote copyrighted material but you must give the proper credit to where the quote came from.
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US copyright laws allow it under 'fair use'.

? 107 ? Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use.
Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include—
(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
(2) the nature of the copyrighted work;
(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copy righted work.
The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors.
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Outside the long arm of US federal law, YMMV.
 
kwired said:
I don't think it is quite that simple, otherwise why not wait until code is adopted then you should be able to get free hard copies as well as digital media versions.
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Well, I don't know about free hard copies, as somebody's got to pay for the paper, ink/toner, etc. However, in an electronic format, such as PDF, there is no incremental cost for each copy made, so it can be given away for free. Back in 2001, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that building codes, when enacted into law, cannot be copyrighted. The NEC meets the definition of a building code as applied to the case.

Like most court rulings, this one was appealed, and in 2003 the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review the 5th Circuit Court's ruling, meaning that the the 5th Circuit Court got the last word. Unless and until some other case is decided differently in the future, the 5th Circuit Court's ruling that adopted building codes can't be copyrighted is the law of the land. That means that NFPA loses their copyright on the language of the code as soon as it is enacted into law. As I said earlier, this only applies to the language of the Code itself, not the commentary.

Now, I'm no lawyer, so it's possible I've got this wrong, but what I do know is that the NEC is available online for free from government websites (although it may take some looking). California offers the CEC (NEC with California amendments) for free via an online viewer (not as a downloadable PDF). A downloadable PDF of the 2011 NEC is available online from Appalachian State University (part of the University of North Carolina System). A downloadable PDF of the 2008 NEC is available online from the City of Garner, NC. Those are some of the official government sources I found through a quick Google search. There are plenty of other sources for downloading a PDF of the NEC, but that's true of a lot of copyrighted material as well, so I didn't include them. :angel:

kwired said:
NFPA can still sell copies of their products, if a publication is adopted as a law, then the jurisdiction making this a law has to give us reference to what the law is and even can make copies of applicable parts when necessary.
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Of course NFPA can still sell copies of their products--they can even charge whatever they want. They just can't copyright the law, and once the Code becomes law anybody can copy it and sell it or give it away, and NFPA has no legal standing to stop them.
 
The Fifth Circuit's ruling only has the force of law in the Fifth Circuit. It would be cited and hold a lot of influence in a case that might get to one of the other Circuits, but they would be free to rule however they saw the issue. If they would rule the other way, then it would be likely that the Supreme Court would hear the appeal and settle the issue.

It is my opinion that the NPFA's making copies of all of their standards available to read online is an attempt at a defense for any future case that involves an NFPA code.
 
JDBrown said:
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Of course NFPA can still sell copies of their products--they can even charge whatever they want. They just can't copyright the law, and once the Code becomes law anybody can copy it and sell it or give it away, and NFPA has no legal standing to stop them.
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The only issue is that once that the NFPA can no longer support the costs of code development by the sale of their codes, standards and handbooks, they will cease to produce those codes and standards. The income from the sale of the NEC and NEC related material supports a large portion of the NFPA.
 
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