Over 2,000 federal regulations are behind paywalls. How? A method of creating regulations called “incorporation by reference.” Incorporation by reference (IBR) is when a law or regulation references another document and makes it a part of the law or regulation, granting it full power of law. This occurs fairly regularly in state and federal laws and regulations. For example, state regulations will often reference portions of federal regulations, rather than create either a duplicate set of regulations on the state’s books or create a new standard.
Tricky topic for sure. The standards are valuable IP. If an agency wants to use them, they probably should pay the equivalent of whatever the expected value of paywall access would have been. My guess is that is still cheaper than developing an alternative set of standards in-house at an agency. But it might be politically harder to ask Congress or a state legislature for a budget line item like that, as opposed to a line item for one or two FTEs to develop the standard in-house.
Alternatively, agencies could develop some performance standards that they think following a set of IBR'd standards would achieve, and then advise businesses (maybe in guidance) that the performance standards would likely be met by following the standards devised by ASME or whoever the standard developing organizationis.
Wow this is definitely an iceberg. Honestly, I think 10 pages might be generous. I feel as if most IBR'd standards will probably be longer on average as they will be extremely technical. If agencies are forced to compensate organizations for their standards, I wonder if it would result in a drop in quality. I could see agencies being less willing to IBR, even if the potential IBR'd standard is better, to accommodate their budget or avoid potential legal trouble. From the standard setting side, I could see incentives to not pay the up front cost to develop the standard if they are not able to price set. Seems like a tricky situation.
Tricky topic for sure. The standards are valuable IP. If an agency wants to use them, they probably should pay the equivalent of whatever the expected value of paywall access would have been. My guess is that is still cheaper than developing an alternative set of standards in-house at an agency. But it might be politically harder to ask Congress or a state legislature for a budget line item like that, as opposed to a line item for one or two FTEs to develop the standard in-house.
Alternatively, agencies could develop some performance standards that they think following a set of IBR'd standards would achieve, and then advise businesses (maybe in guidance) that the performance standards would likely be met by following the standards devised by ASME or whoever the standard developing organizationis.
Wow this is definitely an iceberg. Honestly, I think 10 pages might be generous. I feel as if most IBR'd standards will probably be longer on average as they will be extremely technical. If agencies are forced to compensate organizations for their standards, I wonder if it would result in a drop in quality. I could see agencies being less willing to IBR, even if the potential IBR'd standard is better, to accommodate their budget or avoid potential legal trouble. From the standard setting side, I could see incentives to not pay the up front cost to develop the standard if they are not able to price set. Seems like a tricky situation.