When I built my house some years back I found that
my local government office that issues building permits
had a copy on display for anyone to look things up.
They also had the books for sale. Anyone doing more
than a simple home project (that should include most of
us towertalk people) should just buy one. If the building
inspector disagrees with me I would prefer to have the
book in hand to discuss it and seek a remedy without
making a trip(s) to the town office. The inspector is
less likely to nit pick something if he knows you have
the book, have read the code are trying to follow it.
JerryC
KC8TES
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Lux" <jimlux@earthlink.net>
To: <towertalk@contesting.com>; "Mike Gilmer - N2MG" <n2mg@contesting.com>
Sent: Monday, February 16, 2004 11:18 AM
Subject: Re: NEC and the web Was: [TowerTalk] Grounding Rod Lenght
> From: "Mike Gilmer - N2MG" <n2mg@contesting.com>
> > Jim Lux wrote:
> >
> > > You won't find the NEC online; it's copyrighted,
> > > and the publisher, NFPA, which goes to some
> > > expense to create the code, would prefer to be
> > > paid for their labors.
> > <snip>
>
> >(which has tons of good electrical, grounding, wiring,
> > etc. resources), I caught wind of an interesting legal
> > debate - that of the legality of a government adopting
> > a "code" (such as the NEC) into law, yet (the law)
> > not being provided to the public for free.
> >
> >
> > The debate is not about making the physical printing
> > (the books) available for free, but the laws
> > themselves. In other words, if someone saw fit to
> > make them available online (for free), they would be
> > allowed to.
> >
> > Personally, I hate reading more than a few paragraphs
> > at a time on a computer screen, so if I were in that
> > line of work, I'd own a hard-copy anyway, but it makes
> > for interesting discussion.
>
>
> There was some court cases in TX about this a few years back, where
someone
> had put up the entire code and NFPA sued. I don't recall the end result.
>
> This is a growing and pervasive problem. the Uniform Building Code is the
> same.. most municipalities "adopt" the code as part of their ordinances.
> There are also laws that require the entire code in a jurisdiction to be
> available to the public (after all, secret laws are unenforceable,
> generally). They typically meet this requirement by having a copy
available
> for inspection at the city offices or a library or some such.
>
> However, a good case can be made, these days, that it should be available
by
> other means (it's not like we're riding our horse down to the local
> courthouse to file for our building permit).
>
> Here are the arguments as to why they don't let you make copies of "the
> code":
>
> 1) It's a revenue source by selling copies of the code
> 2) It gives them control over the "official" version. If it weren't
> copyrighted, then anyone could publish some greatly altered version and
call
> it the code, and it would be potentially difficult to know if the one you
> were looking at was the "real one". This is partly why NEC is a
registered
> trademark.
>
> I think #1 is more a matter of changing the business model for NFPA and
> other standards organizations. NFPA publishes some other very helpful
> ancillary material that goes with the code, which helps one practically
> interpret it, for instance. This kind of thing wouldn't fall into the
"laws
> must be publicly distributed, copyright free" area.
>
> #2 is a stickier issue... but I'm sure that there could be ways to deal
with
> it.
>
> Jim Lux, W6RMK
>
> _______________________________________________
>
> See: http://www.mscomputer.com for "Self Supporting Towers", "Wireless
Weather Stations", and lot's more. Call Toll Free, 1-800-333-9041 with any
questions and ask for Sherman, W2FLA.
>
> _______________________________________________
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>
_______________________________________________
See: http://www.mscomputer.com for "Self Supporting Towers", "Wireless Weather
Stations", and lot's more. Call Toll Free, 1-800-333-9041 with any questions
and ask for Sherman, W2FLA.
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