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Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Ind. Law - More on: Indiana building codes, part of the Indiana Administrative Code, are not available online [Updated]

This is big!

Recall this ILB entry, from August 7th, complaining that the Indiana building codes were not available online? That Indiana and many other states simply incorporated by reference codes put out by the International Code Council, a private group, and in the Indiana rules and local ordinances all you will find are the exceptions? More from the Aug. 7th post:

These are exceptions to what is in the published International Code, and of course mean nothing to you if you can't read them with a copy of that Code.So what is an Indiana citizen to do? The copyrighted codes are nowhere freely available online. Go downtown and read the agency's copy. Or maybe there is one at your library. Or you can purchase one for $95 from the International Code. Actually, in all cases it is two: you'll need both the International Code and the state exceptions. And the state has a number of different codes, plumbing, electrical, mechanical, etc.
Well, today Carl Malamud, about whom the ILB has written before, after what has had to have been an enormous amount of effort, has made available online the codes of all the states. He wrote to the FOIA Listserv today:
Your readers may remember our July 4th release of California public safety codes. After a systematic survey of all 50 state fire marshalls, building commissions, administrative codes, and other authorizing legislation and regulations, we are pleased to announce that our code site has now gone national: http://bulk.resource.org/codes.gov/

These codes are all critical for public safety, apply to us all, and the model codes and standards incorporated therein were all intended to be made into laws by the standards creators. It is ironic that the laws that most directly touch our daily lives have been the least accessible, locked up behind a cash register.

In addition, the above-referenced directory features other laws of general applicability, including the California Code of Regulations and California local and county administrative codes.

A readme directory explains some of the underlying issues, making use of the scads of 3-ring binders we accumulated in purchasing materials for this release to create a set for "Code City," a graphic novel of sorts.

This is exciting, but some cautions. The "readme" is fairly quirky, a "Mr. Bill"-type set of 29 slides. I can't find anywhere that he just said what he had to say, straight up. And he should, as he is making an argument as to why these codes are not subject to copyright.

As for the codes themselves, I have downloaded the Indiana building, fire, gas, mechanical, and residential codes. You can't simply look at them online, these are enormous bulk files. The building code, for instance, is 58 MG. It is 750 pages long, but these are scanned pages.

The 2006 International Building Code begins at p. 33 of the 750-page document. As it has been scanned right out of the 3-ring notebooks, it is not searchable, at least not currently.

The Indiana Building Code, 2008 Edition (675 IAC 13-2.5) is based on: International Building Code (2006 Edition) with Indiana amendments. The first 32-page of the document are the exceptions. These are what you may currently find online in the Indiana Administrative Code at 675 IAC 13-2.5.

When I have time I may work with with these files and make them user-friendly. I'll wait to post them, however, until any potential legal problems have resolved themselves.

[Updated] Silly me. You can watch the "Mr. Bill" slides as an animation, here. But then you miss the comments underneath each slide.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on September 2, 2008 02:35 PM
Posted to Administrative Law | Indiana Government | Indiana Law