Dear Editor,

Thank you for presenting both sides of the argument about the Pro Codes Act. ("NFPA Backs 'Pro Codes Act' to Preserve Standards Copyrights Protection" April 27, 2026.)

But I don’t think those supporting this have thought it through.  

1) Standards Development Organizations (SDOs) depend largely on revenue from the sale of standards to support the staff operations necessary to administer the development process and to publish standards. If SDOs have to make those standards available for free, on line and fully searchable, why would anyone buy them? How does the NFPA plan to support its staff when the revenue stream from sale of standards vaporizes?

2) While the proposal allows organizations to keep their copyrights, what good are copyrights when you have to make your standards available for free, on line and fully searchable? Only a bunch of politicians who are also lawyers could argue that you get to keep your copyright only when you give your product away.  

3) The only foreign actors and for-profit businesses who sell copyrighted standards are those who already illegally sell them. What they do is illegal, and this law does nothing to stop them.

4) The claim that this will allow the “American people to access codes and standards that affect their daily lives,” is another one of those “it’s for the children” lines. When was the last time anyone in the general public glanced up at the sprinkler heads in their office and went online to find a copy of NFPA 13 to see if those sprinklers were properly designed and installed? 

In my opinion, the Pro Codes Act, like the Inflation Reduction Act, will do the opposite of what its name implies.

Walter J. Sperko, PE
Sperko Engineering Services, Inc.
Greensboro, NC 
www.sperkoengineering.com

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