Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I note that in Veeck v. Southern Building Code, in the 5th Circuit, a more conservative circuit, they ruled that model building codes adopted by reference into law could be copied freely. The court reasoned that once a standard is incorporated into the law, it becomes public domain material, underscoring the need for free access to legal standards. {time} 1730 I note also the First Circuit, not exactly a liberal bastion, in Building Officials & Code Administrators v. Code Technology, found that once a model building code has been adopted into law, it enters the public domain. This case highlighted the importance of public access to laws and regulations, reinforcing the notion that such standards should not be restricted by copyright claims. The proponents of this bill suggest that should we not overturn the court decisions, that somehow these standard-setting organizations will fail to do the standards that they have done traditionally. There is no evidence for that whatsoever. As I mentioned earlier in my remarks, the standard-setting organizations continue to make millions and millions of dollars in revenue even though they lost in court and failed to maintain their copyright protection on these incorporated-by-reference measures. That is going to continue. There is no evidence whatsoever that that will not continue.…”