The American National Standards Institute (ANSI), the coordinator of the U.S. standards and conformity assessment system, was pleased to support the recent U.S. District Court ruling in favor of ASTM International, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), and the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), whose standards are incorporated into federal law. This interesting information came to us from ANSI News & Publications in their release, “U.S. District Court Rules in Favor of Copyright Protection for Standards Incorporated by Reference into Federal Regulations.”
The judge held that plaintiffs’ standards did not enter the public domain upon their incorporation by reference into federal regulations and did not thereby lose their copyright protection. The decision represents a victory for the standards community and prevents public.resource.org from posting standards developing organization (SDO)-copyrighted codes and standards to its public website.
We can all agree that there is a need for the development and application of standards. Clear, consistent data is important for indexing and retrieving data in any field of business. As we move into more business intelligence integration, remember that standards are what drives consistency and optimization. It is the cornerstone for making content findable. Access Innovations is one of a very small number of companies able to help its clients generate ANSI/ISO/W3C-compliant taxonomies.
Melody K. Smith
Sponsored by Access Innovations, the world leader in indexing and making content findable.
