Old_Thrashbarg

Same, and I'd be more interesting in reading this alternative blogpost.

We posted about our startup who is being sued for hosting the law a couple weeks ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19617073 …

Great points and very true that this made it more lenient which shouldn't cause problems for out-of-state architects.

I haven't, on second thought, I should have done my homework before taking a stance on that.

That's right all the codes are freely accessible. Users have to pay if they want to use our search engine and collaboration tools. We started UpCodes for a couple reasons: one is to make money a…

Wow, wasn't aware. To our understanding, EU also has relatively homogenous building codes. It's the place we've thought we'd probably expand if we ever go international in the di…

Oregon and Georgia, those states make me sad. Don't try to copyright your laws please.

Well, a lot of the inter-state differences, I've never understood. For example, Massachusetts changed the stair riser height from 7-3/4" to 8-1/4" ( https://up.codes…

Exactly. The cost is still passed on to the citizens, probably even more so. In addition, every year in the US, $4B is wasted in construction rework which is really dumb. One of the things we'…

Building codes do definitely play a role. A lot of them are written in reaction to some tragedy (fire, earthquake, structural failure, etc). Here's an interesting assertion: "the biggest p…

Hey, UpCodes cofounder again, yes, they do ask volunteers to sign a copyright form. You can see it in this ICC tutorial (at 24s): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hebfUQ-G24 Very int…

Yes, I left the first comment in this discussion saying I'm the cofounder, AMA, and 3 more times, but you're right, they all got a bit buried, I'll edit my first comment that appears to…

Exactly, and does each state and county really need its own of each code or have to add its own amendments? There are some particular scenarios though where they do: NYC has an extra code related to …

I submitted the article and then left the first comment telling everyone I'm the cofounder and happy to answer questions. No tricks here. > it's really sleazy to concern-troll Not sure w…

Do you mind me asking what you are disuputing? I'm guessing the comment you're responding directly to? In that comment, I said: > The majority of ICC’s revenue comes from program service…

Thank you, glad to get such a supportive response from folks. After keeping quiet about it for a year and a half, it's good to finally get this lawsuit some attention.

Yes, we assumed that too until we got sued! We thought we were all good after reading about Veeck case (in which ICC, whose codes we thought we could very safely put up, lost in the 5th circuit). I b…

IANAL, but I think in the Public.Resource.Org / EFF case, they were claiming you could restate the law: """ Judge Tatel: you have to stay in the hospital for the three days. Can t…

Right, we did not. In addition, we've heard from a ton of people asking how we were able to do this. They each have a story about trying to do something in this space and trying to work with IC…

Somehow it's not surprising to hear the NFPA Java reader is often broken. There's a perverse incentive: the more broken it is, the more money they make selling the law in book form. And th…

The majority of ICC’s revenue comes from program services, including consulting, certification, and training, which do not rely on profiting by limiting access to the law. In addition, the laws are wr…

UpCodes cofounder here. I'd be interested to hear your solution. Also, can you link to the Canadian case? I'm curious. In terms of the ASCE settlement, it included us, so the settlement w…

One correction: ICC organizes the committee of volunteers who write the laws. That's how they have such massive profit margins and can afford to pay their CEO $742,000, when the median non-profit…

UpCodes cofounder here. Fair point, and we definitely don't want to steal any credit from people like Carl Malamud and so many others who have devoted over a decade to this. We're pretty n…

Hey thanks for the support! The best thing you can do is just raise awareness. Either sharing this article or our advocacy page ( https://up.codes/free-law ) to raise awareness helps.…

Most of the organizations are extremely flush with cash and most of it is not from selling the law. That includes the organization in this article, ICC. The majority of ICC’s revenue comes from progr…

Right, following the fire laws when doing any work at home is not just a good idea, but required for safety of you and others in your vicinity. You can be charged criminally for not following these la…

UpCodes cofounder here, glad to see people care about this! Happy to answer any questions.