What This Bill Does
This bill protects copyright protection for technical standards and voluntary consensus standards (like building codes and safety standards) that are incorporated by reference into federal, state, and local laws. The bill requires standards development organizations (private groups that create these standards) to make standards publicly available online at no cost when those standards become part of law, while still allowing them to earn money from selling the standards to businesses and professionals.
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Who It Affects
- Standards development organizations (private groups that create and maintain technical and safety standards)
- Federal, state, and local governments that use standards in their laws and regulations
- The general public who need to access laws containing incorporated standards
- Businesses and professionals who purchase standards
- Small municipalities and governments with limited budgets
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Key Provisions
- Standards development organizations keep copyright protection for their standards even after those standards are incorporated into law, as long as they make the standards publicly available online at no cost within a reasonable time period (Sec. 3(b))
- When standards are made publicly available, they must include a searchable table of contents and index or equivalent tools to help people find specific information (Sec. 3(b))
- "Publicly accessible online" means material is displayed on a public website that meets accessibility standards for people with disabilities, and users can access it free without sharing personal information (Sec. 3(a)(5))
- The Copyright Office must report to Congress every five years on the bill's effects on case law, its effectiveness, implementation challenges, and impacts on public access to legal information (Sec. 3(b))
- Government Accountability Office must conduct multiple studies within specific timeframes examining impacts on disadvantaged communities, state and local government costs, consumers, digital privacy, affordable housing, small businesses, homeowners, First Amendment rights, and whether standards development organizations place unreasonable conditions on access (Sec. 3(c) through 3(n) and Sec. 4)
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What Changes
If this bill becomes law, standards development organizations will be allowed to keep copyright protection for their standards when those standards are written into law. In exchange, these organizations must make their standards freely available online in an accessible format. Previously, it was unclear whether standards incorporated into law automatically lost copyright protection or retained it.
The bill also requires the Copyright Office and Government Accountability Office to study how this law affects various groups and report back to Congress on whether changes are needed.
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Important Definitions
- **Incorporated by reference**: When a law or regulation mentions a standard without copying the standard's text directly into the law itself (Sec. 3(a)(2))
- **Standard**: A technical standard or voluntary consensus standard as defined in federal law and policy documents (Sec. 3(a)(3))
- **Standards development organization**: A private group that holds copyright and develops voluntary consensus standards using open, balanced, fair processes (Sec. 3(a)(4))
- **Publicly accessible online**: Material displayed on a public website that meets accessibility requirements and is available free without requiring users to share personal information (Sec. 3(a)(5))
- **Circular A-119**: A federal policy document from January 27, 2016 that explains how government should use voluntary consensus standards (Sec. 3(a)(1))
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Effective Date
Not specified in bill text
IB
Union Calendar No. 501
118TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 1631
[Report No. 118–601]
To amend title 17, United States Code, to reaffirm the importance of, and
include requirements for, works incorporated by reference into law, and
for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH 17, 2023
Mr. ISSA (for himself and Ms. ROSS) introduced the following bill; which was
referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
JULY 22, 2024
Additional sponsors: Mr. RASKIN, Ms. TITUS, Mr. NEHLS, Mr. MORAN, Mr.
LIEU, Mr. NEGUSE, Mr. CLINE, Mr. FITZGERALD, Mr. KILEY, Mr.
MOORE of Alabama, Ms. JACKSON LEE, Ms. CARAVEO, Mr. YAKYM, Mr.
LALOTA, Mr. NORCROSS, Mr. BISHOP of North Carolina, Mr. BENTZ,
and Mr. GOODEN of Texas
JULY 22, 2024
Reported with an amendment, committed to the Committee of the Whole
House on the State of the Union, and ordered to be printed
[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic]
[For text of introduced bill, see copy of bill as introduced on March 17, 2023]
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•HR 1631 RH
A BILL
To amend title 17, United States Code, to reaffirm the
importance of, and include requirements for, works incor-
porated by reference into law, and for other purposes.
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•HR 1631 RH
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Protecting and Enhanc-
4
ing Public Access to Codes Act’’ or the ‘‘Pro Codes Act’’.
5
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
6
Congress finds the following:
7
(1) Congress, the executive branch, and State
8
and local governments have long recognized that the
9
people of the United States benefit greatly from the
10
work of private standards development organizations
11
with expertise in highly specialized areas.
12
(2) The organizations described in paragraph (1)
13
create technical standards and voluntary consensus
14
standards through a process requiring openness, bal-
15
ance, consensus, and due process to ensure all inter-
16
ested parties have an opportunity to participate in
17
standards development.
18
(3) The standards that result from the process
19
described in paragraph (2) are used by private indus-
20
try, academia, the Federal Government, and State
21
and local governments that incorporate those stand-
22
ards by reference into laws and regulations.
23
(4) The standards described in paragraph (3)
24
further innovation, commerce, and public safety, all
25
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•HR 1631 RH
without cost to governments or taxpayers because
1
standards development organizations fund the process
2
described in paragraph (2) through the sale and li-
3
censing of their standards.
4
(5) Congress and the executive branch have re-
5
peatedly declared that, wherever possible, governments
6
should rely on voluntary consensus standards and
7
have set forth policies and procedures by which those
8
standards are incorporated by reference into laws and
9
regulations and that balance the interests of access
10
with protection for copyright.
11
(6) Circular A–119 of the Office of Management
12
and Budget entitled ‘‘Federal Participation in the
13
Development and Use of Voluntary Consensus Stand-
14
ards and in Conformity Assessment Activities’’, issued
15
in revised form on January 27, 2016, recognizes the
16
benefits of voluntary consensus standards and incor-
17
poration by reference, stating that ‘‘[i]f a standard is
18
used and published in an agency document, your
19
agency must observe and protect the rights of the
20
copyright holder and meet any other similar obliga-
21
tions.’’.
22
(7) Federal agencies have relied extensively on
23
the incorporation by reference system to leverage the
24
value of technical standards and voluntary consensus
25
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•HR 1631 RH
standards for the benefit of the public, resulting in
1
more than 23,000 sections in the Code of Federal Reg-
2
ulations that incorporate by reference technical and
3
voluntary consensus standards.
4
(8) State and local governments have also recog-
5
nized that technical standards and voluntary con-
6
sensus standards are critical to protecting public
7
health and safety, which has resulted in many such
8
governments—
9
(A) incorporating those standards by ref-
10
erence into their laws and regulations; or
11
(B) entering into license agreements with
12
standards development organizations to use the
13
standards created by those organizations.
14
(9) Standards development organizations rely on
15
copyright protection to generate the revenues nec-
16
essary to fund the voluntary consensus process and to
17
continue creating and updating these important
18
standards.
19
(10) The people of the United States have a
20
strong interest in—
21
(A) ensuring that standards development
22
organizations continue to utilize a voluntary
23
consensus process—
24
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•HR 1631 RH
(i) in which all interested parties can
1
participate; and
2
(ii) that continues to create and up-
3
date standards in a timely manner to—
4
(I) account for technological ad-
5
vances;
6
(II) address new threats to public
7
health and safety; and
8
(III) improve the usefulness of
9
those standards; and
10
(B) the provision of access that allows peo-
11
ple to read technical and voluntary consensus
12
standards that are incorporated by reference into
13
laws and regulations.
14
(11) As of the date of enactment of this Act,
15
many standards development organizations make
16
their standards available to the public free of charge
17
online in a manner that does not substantially dis-
18
rupt the ability of those organizations to earn revenue
19
from the industries and professionals that purchase
20
copies and subscription-access to those standards
21
(such as through read-only access), which ensures that
22
the public may read the current, accurate version of
23
such a standard without significantly interfering
24
with the revenue model that has long supported those
25
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•HR 1631 RH
organizations and their creation of, and investment
1
in, new standards.
2
(12) Through this Act, and the amendments
3
made by this Act, Congress intends to balance the
4
goals of furthering the creation of standards and en-
5
suring public access to standards that are incor-
6
porated by reference into law or regulation.
7
SEC. 3. WORKS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE INTO LAW.
8
(a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 1 of title 17, United States
9
Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:
10
‘‘§ 123. Works incorporated by reference into law
11
‘‘(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section:
12
‘‘(1) CIRCULAR A–119.—The term ‘Circular A–
13
119’ means Circular A–119 of the Office of Manage-
14
ment and Budget entitled ‘Federal Participation in
15
the Development and Use of Voluntary Consensus
16
Standards and in Conformity Assessment Activities’,
17
issued in revised form on January 27, 2016.
18
‘‘(2) INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE.—
19
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘incorporated
20
by reference’ means, with respect to a standard,
21
that the text of a Federal, State, local, or munic-
22
ipal law or regulation—
23
‘‘(i) references all or part of the stand-
24
ard; and
25
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•HR 1631 RH
‘‘(ii) does not copy the text of that
1
standard directly into that law or regula-
2
tion.
3
‘‘(B) APPLICATION.—The creation or publi-
4
cation of a work that includes both the text of a
5
law or regulation and all or part of a standard
6
that has been incorporated by reference, as de-
7
scribed in subparagraph (A), shall not affect the
8
status of the standard as incorporated by ref-
9
erence under that subparagraph.
10
‘‘(3) STANDARD.—The term ‘standard’ means a
11
standard or code that is—
12
‘‘(A) a technical standard, as that term is
13
defined in section 12(d) of the National Tech-
14
nology Transfer and Advancement Act of 1995
15
(15 U.S.C. 272 note); or
16
‘‘(B) a voluntary consensus standard, as
17
that term is used for the purposes of Circular A–
18
119.
19
‘‘(4)
STANDARDS
DEVELOPMENT
ORGANIZA-
20
TION.—The term ‘standards development organiza-
21
tion’ means a holder of a copyright under this title
22
that plans, develops, establishes, or coordinates vol-
23
untary consensus standards using procedures that in-
24
corporate the attributes of openness, balance of inter-
25
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•HR 1631 RH
ests, due process, an appeals process, and consensus in
1
a manner consistent with the requirements of Cir-
2
cular A–119.
3
‘‘(5) PUBLICLY ACCESSIBLE ONLINE.—
4
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘publicly ac-
5
cessible online’, with respect to material, means
6
that the material is displayed for review in a
7
readily accessible manner on a public website
8
that conforms with the accessibility requirements
9
of section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973
10
(29 U.S.C. 794d), including the regulations im-
11
plementing that section as set forth in part 1194
12
of title 36, Code of Federal Regulations, or any
13
successor regulation.
14
‘‘(B) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—If a user is
15
required to create an account or agree to the
16
terms of service of a website or organization in
17
order to access material online, that requirement
18
shall not be construed to render the material not
19
publicly accessible online for the purposes of sub-
20
paragraph (A), if—
21
‘‘(i) there is no monetary cost to the
22
user to access that material; and
23
‘‘(ii) no personally identifiable infor-
24
mation collected pursuant to such a require-
25
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•HR 1631 RH
ment is used without the affirmative and
1
express consent of the user.
2
‘‘(b) STANDARDS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE INTO
3
LAW OR REGULATION.—A standard to which copyright pro-
4
tection subsists under section 102(a) at the time of its fixa-
5
tion shall retain such protection, notwithstanding that the
6
standard is incorporated by reference, if the applicable
7
standards development organization, within a reasonable
8
period of time after obtaining actual or constructive notice
9
that the standard has been incorporated by reference, makes
10
all portions of the standard so incorporated publicly acces-
11
sible online at no monetary cost and in a format that in-
12
cludes a searchable table of contents and index, or equiva-
13
lent aids to facilitate the location of specific content.
14
‘‘(c) BURDEN OF PROOF.—In any proceeding in which
15
a party asserts that a standards development organization
16
has failed to comply with the requirements under subsection
17
(b) for retaining copyright protection with respect to a
18
standard, the burden of proof shall be on the party making
19
that assertion to prove that the standards development orga-
20
nization has failed to comply with those requirements.’’.
21
(b) PRO CODES ACT REPORTING REQUIREMENT.—
22
(1) IN GENERAL.—The United States Copyright
23
Office is required to prepare and submit a com-
24
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•HR 1631 RH
prehensive report to the House Judiciary Committee,
1
which shall include—
2
(A) a detailed assessment of this Act’s effect
3
on case law;
4
(B) an analysis of this Act’s effectiveness in
5
achieving its stated goals;
6
(C) a review of any challenges or obstacles
7
encountered during the implementation process;
8
(D) recommendations for legislative or regu-
9
latory modifications to improve the effectiveness
10
of this Act; and
11
(E) an overview of the impact of this Act on
12
the public, including access to legal information
13
and compliance costs for governments, businesses,
14
and individuals.
15
(2) TIMELINE FOR SUBMISSION.—
16
(A) The initial report must be submitted
17
within two years of the enactment of this Act.
18
(B) Subsequent reports shall be submitted
19
every five years on the anniversary of the first
20
report’s submission.
21
(c) GAO STUDY ON DISADVANTAGED COMMUNITIES.—
22
(1) STUDY DIRECTED.—The Comptroller General
23
of the United States shall conduct a study on the po-
24
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•HR 1631 RH
tential disparate impact of this Act on historically
1
disadvantaged communities.
2
(2) ELEMENTS OF THE STUDY.—The study shall
3
include, but not be limited to:
4
(A) An analysis of how limited access to
5
technical standards incorporated in the PRO
6
Codes Act could disproportionately hinder the
7
ability of historically disadvantaged commu-
8
nities to assert their legal rights and advocate for
9
legal reforms.
10
(B) An assessment of how the potential costs
11
associated with accessing standards could create
12
additional barriers for residents of historically
13
disadvantaged communities seeking to under-
14
stand and enforce their rights.
15
(C) An examination of potential disparities
16
in outcomes for historically disadvantaged com-
17
munities arising from the implementation of the
18
PRO Codes Act.
19
(D) Recommendations on ways to mitigate
20
any identified disparate impacts on historically
21
disadvantaged communities.
22
(3) REPORT.—The Comptroller General shall
23
submit a report to Congress within two years of the
24
enactment of this Act, detailing the findings of the
25
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GAO Study on the impact of PRO Codes on histori-
1
[Text truncated for display. Full text available on Congress.gov.]