=0AA question from someone who preferred to remain anonymous...

- Ralph

Hello,

I have a question related to how other organizations and professionals view and manage consensus standards at their facility.  Recently, a manager at my corporation requested that I purchase a single license consensus standard from an organization (such as ANSI) and then disburse to another individual for use among a workgroup.  After reading the copyright agreement on the consensus standard I informed the colleague that per the copyright agreement that this couldn't be done and that the individual would need to purchase the standard himself and it could only be for his sole use.  The manager then replied that (these are not his exact words) it was no big deal to purchase the standard and give to the individual and no one would hold me to the copyright law.  I understand that the chances of being held and prosecuted for the disbursement of one consensus standard would probably not occur; however, I refused the manager's request on the basis of ethics and stated that the comp!
any would either have to purchase a multiple user license to the standard which I would look into or the individual would have to buy the standard himself.

Therefore, my question is just on how other companies and individuals deal with the purchasing of consensus standards that are incorporated into government regulations by reference (such as NEC 70E).  Especially since these standards can cost a lot of money to an individual or small companies.  I have already seen some individuals (not the manager stated above) email consensus standards between other users as if it were not a big deal.  Also, I heard recently on a public radio program where a group is trying to distribute these to the public for free (http://www.onthemedia.org/2012/apr/13/making-laws-more-public/) . 

Any thoughts or comments on this topic would be very much appreciated. 

Thank you.
YSP (young safety professional)