[IP] building codes

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

________________________________________
From: Carl Malamud [carl@media.org]
Sent: Monday, July 07, 2008 7:32 PM
To: David Farber
Subject: building codes

Hi Dave -

For IP if you wish ... we've posted building, fire, mechanical,
plumbing, and electrical codes
for California along with an explanation of why we believe this
information is public domain.

http://public.resource.org/bsc.ca.gov/

The issue at hand is partly a legal one, and we believe the Veeck
decision is right on point.

But, it is also about open standards and innovation.  The battle
between OSI (closed standards)
and the IETF protocols (open standards) was resolved when it became
clear that open standards
made for better networks.  I'm confident that once the dust settles
we'll see that open codes make
for better (and safer) buildings.  While I'm sympathetic to the need
to fund the standards-making
process, I think enough money is floating around construction that we
don't necessarily have to
fund the process through an incredibly regressive mechanism such as
the current model.

Best regards,

Carl





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