Russ Leavitt
I started my fire protection career more than four decades ago as a fire sprinkler design technician, and the rules for designing a fire sprinkler system were in National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Standard 13, known as the Red and Pocket Book. My instructors explained to me that it was the Bible for fire sprinkler systems and that I had to learn it back and forth because its requirements were essential to installing systems that would work properly and protect people and buildings.
When I used the standard, I didn’t understand how it developed and adopted its content. Frankly, in my naivety, I simply assumed that some really smart person or people wrote it and updated it. I later learned about NFPA’s standards making process and now unfortunately see that system and how it is paid for is under continued attack.
Codes and standards created by private entities are a road map to unparalleled success for fire and life safety. The widely used NFPA standard and others are created with input from any interested party, allowing all interested parties to serve on technical committees.
Stakeholders are limited to no more than 30% of the committee’s voting members, and a minimum of two-thirds of the committee must agree to approve a change. Public access is also allowed. Taking NFPA as an example, development processes are largely funded by revenue generated from the sale of documents, both paper and digital.
In recent years, for-profit entities have attempted to republish or trade security codes without compensation. This, combined with the scraping of artificial intelligence, threatens to bankrupt the self-funded security standards development system. For-profit entities argue that when a code or standard is adopted by a jurisdiction, it becomes law and should be freely accessible. They have filed lawsuits to allow anyone to use the codes and standards in any way they see fit, including for commercial purposes. These issues are being discussed in various courts and legislation is needed.
Law of professional codes
To create a final resolution, NFPA supports federal legislation to address the issue of copyright protection for privately developed codes and standards. The Pro Codes Act, which has bipartisan support and is now being considered in the House, requires that standards incorporated by reference be available for free viewing on a publicly accessible website.
This approach ensures that anyone who wants to review the standards can do so. It is a solution that ensures the public can access the standards and rules they are expected to follow while incentivizing the creation and continuous updating of standards so critical to protecting public health and safety.
For more than ten years, NFPA has allowed anyone to view its codes and standards for free on its website. The only restriction is that you cannot download, copy and paste or print the text due to copyright protection.
Although there is broad support for the Pro Code Act, the step is still a difficult hill to climb, as there are those who think that copyright does not need to be in place and that, in the end, governments can create the laws and regulations for fire safety and life. This would be, in a word, a disaster. You only have to look around the world to see how badly this works.
We need your help and one thing we know for sure is that contacting your representatives works. The NFPA has a simple link and allows us to contact our government representatives to support the Act. For more information on the Professional Codes Act, visit dontchancesafety.org. To access the form to contact your members of Congress and urge them to support this landmark law, visit votervoice.net/NFPA/Campaigns.
As my fire protection career progressed, I eventually became a partner in a consulting firm where my partner mentored me through the code and standards development process. I became a member of the NFPA in 1990 and have been active with the development process ever since.
I believe that the future of fire and life safety in the US and beyond depends on the passage and enactment of the Professional Codes Act. We need the support of everyone who wants a fire safe world.
