Security Sales & Integration August 2022 - 22

SMARTS & PARTS
Fire Side Chat by Shane Clary
The Price of
Proper Safety
The NFPA or
ICC could not
survive and
be able to
continue their
missions if
the codes and
standards that
they publish
would be free
and within
the public
domain for
distribution.
▶ IN MY LAST COLUMN, I stated that this
month would focus on bi-directional antenna
(BDA) systems. Th at column is coming, but
not this month. In June, I attended the fi rst live
annual meeting of the National Fire Protection
Association (NFPA) after a two-year virtual gap
due to COVID-19. It was good to fi nally see
individuals who I have not seen live for over two
years. It was also great to fi nally see products
after a two-year gap in time.
While there was a number of new products
being shown, that will not be the topic of this
column. Th e topic is the availability of codes
and standards and the costs associated with that
availability. During the general session of the
meeting, Jim Pauley, president of CEO of the
NFPA, spent a couple of minutes in his remarks
on these subjects.
In past columns, I have detailed how codes
and standards are developed. Th ere are two
leading organizations within the U.S. that promulgate
the majority of building and fi re codes,
the NFPA and the International Code Council.
(ICC). Once a code or standard has been released
for publication by either of these organizations,
they are adopted by a state of local
jurisdiction to be used by them as their building
and/or fi re code. Th e jurisdiction then may
make local amendments to the base document
for use within their jurisdiction.
Both of these organizations, while funded
Shane Clary, Ph.D., has
more than 45 years of
security and fi re alarm
industry experience. He
serves on a number of
NFPA technical committees,
and is Vice President of
Codes and Standards
Compliance for Concord,
Calif.-headquartered Bay
Alarm Co.
22
in part by membership dues, receive their primary
funding through the publication of these
completed documents. Th rough each cycle of
a particular code or standard, refi nements and
changes are made.
Th ere is a segment of the users of the published
codes and standards that have adopted a
theory that once a state of jurisdiction has adopted
a particular code and/or standard, that
the document becomes part of the public domain
and should be available to all at no cost.
To be clear, I am not a lawyer, so I am not going
to discuss any case law within this short article.
Th e NFPA or ICC could not survive and be
Security Sales & Integration AUGUST 2022
able to continue their missions if the codes and
standards that they publish would be free and
within the public domain for distribution.
While the codes and standards are developed
by countless volunteers, such as myself, it still
takes a staff and organization to put it all together
and publish the fi nal works, and then to
do it time after time.
Th ere is also the mission of both the NFPA and
ICC that could not be executed if they both did
not exist, and the codes and standards that are
published by both would no longer be published.
Th e I-Codes through the ICC are available
in a digital format at a very reasonable cost.
Th e NFPA code and standards are available for
review at no cost through the NFPA web portal.
State amendments can be obtained in most
cases through the adopting agency and local
changes by a jurisdiction can be obtained typically
through the city clerk's web portal.
Th ere remain those that feel for one reason or
another that if a code or standard are adopted,
that the entire document should be released at no
cost. Th e same is true if a code should have a reference
to a particular standard, that those standards
should be part of the public record, say, NFPA 72,
National Fire Alarm & Signaling Code.
Th is simply cannot be. As tempting as it
might be to fi nd and download a pirated copy,
it in the end is the same as making a copy of
a software product. Th e fi rms that produce the
software cannot exist if their products are copied
and distributed at no cost. Th e same issue
occurred several years ago with streaming music
and videos.
At the end of the day, purchase your copies
of the NFPA and ICC codes and standards that
you use in your daily work. By doing so you
are supporting the important work that both
the ICC and NFPA perform to improve building
and fi re-safety within the U.S., as well as
throughout the world.
securitysales.com
smclary@bayalarm.com
HANNA AIBETOVA/STOCK.ADOBE.COM
http://www.securitysales.com
Security Sales & Integration August 2022

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