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Is the National Electrical Code (NFPA 70) public domain in the USA?

Am I free to include the whole text in my website?

zundi
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  • I'm not sure it even qualifies for copyright in the first place. But we are not lawyers. – Passerby Jul 04 '16 at 21:28
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    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Electrical_Code#Public_access – dim Jul 04 '16 at 21:33
  • @Zundi: This is an international site. Could you put the name of your nation in the title so that others will know whether it's relevant to them? – Transistor Jul 04 '16 at 21:45
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it is not about electronics. – user57037 Jul 04 '16 at 21:49
  • @mkeith. This is purely a legal question. Lets move it to where it belongs-law.SE. –  Jul 04 '16 at 23:22
  • @Sparky256, I don't know how to do that. – user57037 Jul 04 '16 at 23:49
  • @mkeith. The mods will see these comments and take care of it. –  Jul 05 '16 at 00:01
  • If I might add, this isn't electronics SE but Electrical Engineering, which would include NEC related questions. – zundi Jul 05 '16 at 01:05
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    @zundi -- there is some room for electrical questions here (albeit not of a home-improvement type, which most Code-related questions are, as those belong on DIY.SE instead) -- but this is flat-out law-interpretation (and in flux right now -- DC Circuit Court is working on this as ASTM et. al. v. Public.Resource.Org) – ThreePhaseEel Jul 05 '16 at 01:28

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The NEC it is not public domain. The document is a copyrighted work, created and published by the National Fire Protection Association. You will likely receive unwelcome calls and letters from attorneys who are well-paid by the NFPA if you publish the NFPA's NEC document in its entirety on your website.

IIRC, there are "official websites" where a person can download a copy the NEC for personal use, but that copy cannot be republished (e.g., via your own personal website) as far as I know.

Rather than (re)publishing a copy of the NEC on your own website, why not just link to the "official" websites that offer free downloads of this document. Then you won't be breaking any laws.

EDIT: Well, I am not a lawyer nor a licensed attorney, so my comments herein could be inaccurate, or incorrect, or both. But it seems legal precedent exists where state and local governments can "appropriate" (i.e., acquire without compensation) copyrighted works created by others by simply adopting those works as "facts" within their statutes, thereby rendering ineffective various protections afforded to those copyright holders under Federal copyright law, and placing the copyrighted work into the public domain (but with some copyright protections still intact).

EDIT: @Passerby is correct; the wording in my previous EDIT appears unfair as written. Hopefully this EDIT provides clarification: "... state and local governments can "appropriate" (i.e., acquire without compensation, but not via involuntary transfer (see 17 U.S.C. § 201(e)) copyrighted works created by others by simply adopting and thereby incorporate those works as "facts" within their statutes ..."

Jim Fischer
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  • It seems to contradict the wikipedia link I posted. This link says that once the text is approved by the state legislations, it becomes freely distributable, like all law texts. – dim Jul 04 '16 at 21:38
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    Guys, guys. You're not lawyers, move the question to law.stackexchange and let it be answered where it's on-topic. :) He doesn't even ask about interpreting the code. – pipe Jul 04 '16 at 21:39
  • https://law.resource.org/pub/us/case/reporter/F3/293/293.F3d.791.99-40632.html – Passerby Jul 04 '16 at 21:51
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    Your assessment is not fair. They lobby for their code to become law, offering it to legislative bodies. They want it to become the law, but turn around and want to sell it too. They can't have it both ways. It's not like a state turns around and claims it out of nowhere. And if they did, there would be eminent domain laws that would require the government to pay fair market cost for it. But here the NFPA pushes for legislation. – Passerby Jul 04 '16 at 23:16