Fair use of standards

I think some of you are on the Read 2.0 listserve, but for the benefit 
of those who aren't (or didn't see it because Seville is too 
distracting), Todd Carpenter from NISO just posted a recent court ruling 
regarding the fair use of standards (aka copyright exception):
https://law.resource.org/pub/us/cfr/regulations.gov.astm.appeal2/D.C.%20Cir.%2022-07063%20dckt%20_000%20filed%202023-09-12.2.pdf

Todd included this snippet from the ruling in his post:
"Many private organizations develop and copyright suggested technical 
standards for an industry, product, or problem. Federal and state 
governments often incorporate such standards into law. This case 
presents the question whether third parties may make the incorporated 
standards available for free online. We hold that the non-commercial 
dissemination of such standards, as incorporated by reference into law, 
constitutes fair use and thus cannot support liability for copyright 
infringement."

I believe that may have some relevance to our ISO discussions. . . . If 
I'm reading it properly, the response to "but you have to pay for ISO 
standards" is "not necessarily."

--Bill

Received on Friday, 15 September 2023 14:49:40 UTC