Free Download of Building Codes

[thejonster]

Is this legal? (I don't know!)

City of Los Angeles Building Code 2008

http://www.archive.org/details/gov.ca.la.building.code.vol1

http://www.archive.org/details/gov.ca.la.building.code.vol2

California Building Code

http://public.resource.org/bsc.ca.gov/index.html

Public.resource.org says: “The courts have long held that the law is public domain and must be available to all for use without restriction. While numerous organizations have attempted to assert copyright over judicial branch opinions, legislative branch statutes, and executive branch regulations, the courts have not looked kindly on these efforts to place a private wrapper around a public package. If we are to be a nation of laws, those laws must be accessible to all.”

William Wallace says: "FREEEEDOOMMMMMM!"

 

[SteelPE]

Well, isn't that funny. I was just looking for a version of an old Building code from 1980 and ended up at the same website. Is it legal? I don't know. but I do remember some discussion on here a while back about building codes being the law and therefore should be made available free to the public.

 

[BAretired]

I believe building codes should be made free to the public. Surely the object of building codes is to ensure that buildings are constructed in accordance with the latest technology. Why would we want to deny anyone free access to a building code? The answer to that can only be...for profit. The building code is the law and that should be available to anyone who wants it.

BA

 

[woodman88]

As I understand it (being an engineer and not a lawyer), if you get a copy of the law, then it can be made available free. If you buy a copy of the code book, that book is copyrighted and cannot be made available without permission. The gray area is if the law states use this codebook by others with the following amendments as the law, has the codebook become part of the law?
Now with the old UBC you could design a simple structure with just the information in it. But, now with the IBC/IRC you are required to add a library of standards to design a structure.

Garth Dreger PE - AZ Phoenix area
As EOR's we should take the responsibility to design our structures to support the components we allow in our design per that industry standards.

 

[slickdeals]

Also try these

http://bulk.resource.org/codes.gov/

http://public.resource.org/index.html

 

[hawkaz]

Anyone know of something like this for the Eurocode?

 

[csd72]

hawkaz,

There are plenty of free versions of the eurocodes out there, mostly english versions from eastern european countries. You just need to keep looking.

There are also plenty of handbooks out there fore free on websites such as eurocodes expert and the concrete society.

Good hunting?

 

[wannabeSE]

The ICC has many building codes online for free, including California

http://www.iccsafe.org/Store/Pages/FreeCodes.aspx

(I don't care for the html format). The City of Los Angeles Amendments to the California Building Code can be down loaded from the Dept of Building and Saftey Website

http://ladbs.org/LADBSWeb/codes.jsf

 

[ST04]

From my point of view, there is a valid point of selling the codes.

These codes are "Code of practice" involving lots of experimental and deep studies.

Regards