[CivicAccess-discuss] Cdn Standards Assoc (c) & cost recovery

[Jonathan Brun]

Hi all,

In addition to MontrealOuvert, I run Nimonik.ca - a company that helps businesses audit and manage legislative requirements tied to ISO standards (amongst other things). Notably, we manage https://www.wikichecklists.com that has many questionnaires based on various ISO standards (14001, 9001, 26000, 27001, ...) standards. We have debated internally our risk with regard to infringing on their copyright. 

We know people at the CSA and they know us, we have yet to hear anything from them on our use of their standards. 

Personally, I find is asinine that they copyright this stuff. If their goal is to have as many people and organizations as possible adopt and use their standards, they should make them freely available. As far as I know, CSA, generates most of its revenue from registrations to the standards and government financing. Which further reduces the logic for for charging for their standards. 

On top of all this, a lot of canadian legislation (especially environmental) references various ISO standards. By referencing standards you are basically making them law. But, the standards cost money, which makes them inaccessible and maybe in conflict with Crown copyright?

I'll stop here, if someone is more knowledgeable on the subject of industrial standards, I am keen to know what to read. 

Cheers,

JB
MontrealOuvert.net
jonathanbrun.com

On 2011-05-18, at 3:23 PM, David Eaves wrote:

> Joe - really glad you raised this. Going to apply my brain to it. Such a great example of governing bodies getting it wrong.
> 
> I'm working with a client in a similar space so this is really timely. Thank you.
> 
> cheers,
> dave
> 
> On 11-05-18 9:25 AM, Joe Murray wrote:
>> 
>> Here's another area of concern. Note that the CSA is just trying to cover their costs through sale of copyrighted material, but could provide them as copyleft if they were properly funded by the federal government.
>> 
>> CSA is the Canadian Standards body for lots of IT things as well as physical products.
>> 
>> Joe Murray, PhD
>> President, JMA Consulting
>> joe.murray at jmaconsulting.biz
>> skype JosephPMurray twitter JoeMurray
>> 416.466.1281
>> 
>> 
>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>> From: Cathy Frederickson <cathy.frederickson at csa.ca>
>> Date: Wed, May 18, 2011 at 11:20 AM
>> Subject: Upcoming CSA Webex Sessions to discuss CSA Copyright Assignment Requests
>> To: member at csa.ca
>> Cc: Sam Loggia <sam.loggia at csa.ca>, David Briere <David.Briere at csa.ca>, Loretta Wegman <loretta.wegman at csa.ca>, Aliya Ramji <Aliya.Ramji at csagroup.org>
>> 
>> 
>> Dear CSA IT Committee Members:
>> 
>>  
>> Over the last few months CSA has been communicating with you regarding our efforts to strengthen our CSA copyright position.
>> 
>>  
>> With the use of the internet and other growing social media channels, it has become increasingly evident that CSA(and other Standards Organizations) copyrighted materials are being copied and distributed without permission.
>> 
>> Recognizing that CSA offsets part of our operating costs through the sale of our standards, this continued activity could undermine the future viability of our association.
>> 
>>  
>> CSA is currently looking at several cases to take legal action against violations of misuse and infringement of our copyright standards. Most  members will appreciate that in our efforts to legally protect our copyright, we also need to ensure that those contributing towards the development of these materials provide a copyright release. We have since requested all committee members explicit permission to use their intellectual property which is brought to the table for incorporation into the final standard. This is not intended to prevent members from reasonably utilizing the contributions for their own activities, however CSA does need to ensure that our members are allowing us to use these contributions in the final CSA standard and related products.
>> 
>>  
>> Unfortunately our communications have unintentionally resulted in concerns being raised regarding the implications of assigning member copyright to CSA. As a result we will be offering a series of Webex sessions specifically on the issue of copyright for our members. We hope you will be available to attend one of these sessions and come with your questions and concerns.
>> 
>>  
>> Please join us for one or more of the following sessions:
>> 
>>  
>> Thursday May 26 , 1-2pm EST.
>> 
>> Thursday June 23, 1-2pm EST.
>> 
>> Thursday July 21, 1-2 pm EST.
>> 
>> Thursday August 25 1-2pm EST.
>> 
>>  
>> Yours truly,
>> 
>> Cathy Frederickson
>> 
>> Manager Member Education
>> 
>> CSA Standards
>> 
>> 416-747-2567
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> 
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