Page:Veeck v Southern Building Code Congress Intl.pdf/53

 codes and standards differ greatly from either judicial opinions or a statutes. Technical codes are indispensable resources in today's increasingly complex, high-tech society, and they deserve authorship protections not afforded to other types of "THE law."

The First Circuit's overbroad dicta in BOCA was announced in 1980, well before the advent of the internet and well before the announcement of the federal government's legislated policy directing the adoption of privately created codes to serve the principles of efficiency and economic competition. Moreover, recent appellate case law supports the recognition of the clear differences between, on the one hand, privately developed standards that are adopted into law by reference and, on the other hand, law created by legislators and judges. Thus, the majority's