ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Progress?

hey ... check this out...

if you can't afford $65 for a book then you are going to have a real hard time keeping your liscence up to date !!!...thus, you won't need the $65 book.

last year my renewal and continuing education classes were out of this world...

Heh.

We have enough inspectors here, electricians, and physics weens; we should hustle over to sourceforge.net and craft our own 'open source' electrical code.

Instead of arguing weather or not the NEC requires the use of a 'green grounding screw', we could argue about what our code _should_ require.

Instead of having table 310.15(B)(6) we could make the load calculations more logical, and have them produce _two_ numbers: required conductor ampacity and required OCPD rating.

We could require anti-short bushings on MC cable, and ban totally 'back-stab' receptacles

If we craft something sane and self consistent, then perhaps various authorities would adopt the 'open source electrical code', and then there would be no copyright issue.

*grin*

-Jon

P.S. The County Court Clerk giving away copies of the codes for free is not consistent with the way other government agencies act with laws and regulations.

The laws and regulations themselves are without copyright, and thus 'free'. But the books and printing are charged for. Massachusetts makes most or all state laws available online for free...but you have to pay for printed copies.

-Jon

I sense that the determination of the judiciary, and the resultant denial of the Supreme Court to consider the case, is being viewed by this board as an assault on the NEC. This is unquestionably not the issue. The factual issue is a great deal more wide-ranging in that the ruling simply states that a law enacted by a political subdivision must be made available free and not just “available for view”. It does not isolate the NEC but embraces any law endorsed by a governmental entity. That is the undeniable issue behind the abundant and diverse amici. My practice in the industry as an active EC concluded 10 years past but I remain involved to an extent. Could we candidly declare that a cable TV installer or a residential EC needs the entire NEC? I addressed EE classes at ASU and the NEC was forever a vigorous subject of debate with a preponderance of the attendees providing differences of opinion on interpretations.
Sam

winnie — An "open-source" electrical code... Excellent! What a concept!

Seriously, it's been awhile, but early in web history a Texas municipality published the text of the ’93 or '96(?) NEC based on their council’s interpretation that it was a local, legally-binding document, so had to be published online.

I believe NFPA got a very fast injunction against the municipality. IIRC, it was raw, unformatted text with no table of contents or index, so it was fairly useless in that form.




[This message has been edited by Bjarney (edited 05-27-2004).]