Copyright, Paywalls, Building Codes, and Laws

Interesting I had not herd anything , google found this:

Issa, Ross Introduce Legislation to Protect Public Access to Federal Rules, Regulations

Washington, D.C. – Congressman Darrell Issa (CA-48), Senior Member of the House Judiciary Committee and Chairman of its Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Artificial Intelligence, and the Courts, was joined by Congresswoman Deborah Ross (NC-02) and introduced H.R. 4072 — the Protecting and...
issa.house.gov issa.house.gov
Senate (S. 4145): Introduced in March 2026 by Senators Chris Coons (D-DE) and John Cornyn (R-TX).
House (H.R. 4072): Introduced by Representatives Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Deborah Ross (D-NC).
 
tortuga said:
As the courts have noted, "Public access is not a substitute for professional utility." While the average citizen should not have to pay to read the laws they must follow, professionals will continue to purchase premium, searchable versions for their specialized utility.
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I think it can be argued that the general public would have little use for something like the NEC. It exists for professionals. Providing a basically unusable version to the public just to satisfy having to, while making professionals pay is discriminatory. Professionals use the internet to look things up all the time.

-Hal
 
hbiss said:
Providing a basically unusable version to the public just to satisfy having to, while making professionals pay is discriminatory.
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That's what we have now. Here on the forum we can copy and paste code sections under fair use but you have to pay to use the copy and paste functionality of the "free" NEC.
 
jim dungar said:
So do trunk slammers and DIYers.
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Those are the ones who wouldn't know what they were looking at. Really, let's give ourselves some credit. How much time have we spent studying and learning the Code and a lot of us still don't know it all? Do you really think someone who has done none of that is going to be able to use it to know how to do something? We see them come here thinking the Code book is like reading a story.

-Hal
 
hbiss said:
Do you really think someone who has done none of that is going to be able to use it to know how to do something?
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In many states, including mine, a homeowner is allowed to do electrical work in their own residence as long as they pull permits, which require them to follow the applicable codes.
 
jim dungar said:
In many states, including mine, a homeowner is allowed to do electrical work in their own residence as long as they pull permits, which require them to follow the applicable codes.
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Same here in NJ. As long as you own the house you can apply for the permits, do all of your own work, schedule an inspection, and have it signed off by the electrical inspector.
 
infinity said:
Same here in NJ. As long as you own the house you can apply for the permits, do all of your own work, schedule an inspection, and have it signed off by the electrical inspector.
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Same here but unless you are doing new construction or replacing a service, it is rare that a home owner pulls a permit. Ours also says the home owner or his family has to do the work, and that too is ignored.
 
Hey folks, UpCodes cofounder here and new member of this forum (so excuse me if I'm doing anything wrong).

I just wanted to jump in and echo some of the points from @tortuga, the publishers have long claimed that without full ownership over the law (building codes incorporated into law by reference), they will go out of business, but it's not true.

For example, UpCodes has been posting the ICC associated building codes as adopted into law for over 10 years now, yet you can see their revenues increase year-over-year here. Their CEO's salary being $1,429,043 (~10x the median salary for a non-profit CEO). And any other publisher claiming financial hardship, please first just fact-check that on this website before taking it at face-value.

We're still in a David vs Goliath battle with them (we're still way smaller than them in terms of revenue) fighting for free & unfettered laws.

And also as noted by @tortuga and @pipe_bender, their now spending millions in DC pushing the Pro Codes Act which aims to allow private ownership of the law. We have a page for contacting your reps, sharing in case anyone's willing to do so or wants to learn more. We're pretty outgunned there, so appreciate any help we can get!
 
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