That solves the case but avoids the Democracy DA --- it prevents unauthorized reproduction of standards while still giving the public access to the necessary aspects of them.
Halperin 24 – member of the Board of Directors of Public Citizen, J.D. from Yale Law School.
David Halperin, “Congress Should Reject Bill To Let Private Groups Control Access To U.S. Laws,” Republic Report, https://www.republicreport.org/2024/congress-should-reject-bill-to-let-private-groups-control-access-to-u-s-laws/
If the SDOs want an alternative, we have repeatedly offered one: Instead of making entire books of standards the law, as happens now, agencies or legislatures could incorporate by reference or directly paste into regulations or statutes only those parts of standards that they really need to make law. Then SDOs would still have exclusive content to sell in their standards books, and the public would have full access to the law.
But, through the PRO Codes Act, the SDOs demand that the only solution is to make them the gatekeepers of thousands of pages of federal and state law. House Judiciary members should reject this undemocratic, unlawful approach.