The Pro Codes Act (PCA) is goldilocks. It guarantees copyright protections while increasing transparency.

National Fire Protection Association, “NFPA Praises Overwhelming Bipartisan Passage of Pro Codes Act,” ASPE Pipeline, 05-06-2024, https://aspe.org/pipeline/nfpa-praises-overwhelming-bipartisan-passage-of-pro-codes-act/

Rigorous voluntary consensus-based standards, developed by nonprofit standards development organizations (SDOs) like NFPA, are critical to the safety of Americans and people around the world. This standards development system has worked effectively and efficiently for more than 125 years.

Unfortunately, the standards development system is under attack. Sometimes, federal, state, or local statutes or regulations incorporate by reference privately developed standards like the ones that NFPA creates. Some special interests wrongly argue that this process, which benefits the public, should forfeit the copyright and allow others to profit off of SDOs’ work. Extinguishing the copyright for a standard incorporated by reference threatens to make it impossible for SDOs to sell copies of their standards to the professionals who use them. The net result would be the dismantling of the private standards development system. There are no alternatives anywhere as effective or efficient.

The Pro Codes Act reinforces existing law by making it clear that a standard does not lose its copyright protection by virtue of having been used by government in this way, provided that the standard is available for free viewing on a publicly accessible website. This legislation ensures transparency for the public, while also protecting the ability of groups like NFPA to continue their important work.