Standards are created through in-depth collaboration between experts from different organisations such as companies, NGOs, governments, and research institutions. Standards development is therefore a long and intense process. All stakeholders from a certain field come together, have extensive discussions, make compromises, and conduct thorough research. The goal? To finally reach a consensus on the adoption of a standard that is widely accepted and applied.
Companies and other stakeholders use this knowledge in various ways, such as to improve the quality of their products and services, organise value chains more efficiently, better protect the environment, or find markets for their products and services more easily.
Copyright allows NBN to guarantee the authenticity and integrity of each standard. This way, the user always has the correct version.
NBN uses the sale of standards to fund standardisation activities, as do other national and international standards agencies. In other words, copyright protection promotes, stimulates, and contributes to the overall standardisation process.
Want to know how and why NBN uses copyright and intellectual property law? You can read all about it in the guide on copyright.
Download the guide on copyright
When you buy a standard – whether digital or paper – you may make one print version for internal use within your organisation. By respecting copyright, you avoid potential legal consequences and financial penalties. Fortunately, NBN offers several formulas for working with standards in a copyright-compliant way.
Want to buy one standard for a single user? Prefer a comprehensive collection for the entire organisation? Or even better: a customised subscription? Through the NBN platform you can easily buy and use standards while respecting copyright.
The Belgian Code of Economic Law, Article XI.189 et seq., provides exceptions to copyright, including:
These exceptions are possible when justified by the organisation’s non-profit-making objective and when they do not prejudice the normal use of the work. In these cases, NBN’s prior consent is not needed to reproduce the work.
In addition, NBN has, beyond the legal exceptions provided for in Belgian law, adopted a policy based on the principle of reasonable use, inspired by the Anglo-Saxon 'faire use'. Reasonable use is the reproduction of small extracts of standards and other NBN content for non-commercial purposes. Reasonable use of a standard or NBN content requires NBN's prior consent. This can be requested by completing a form which clearly states the limits for reasonable use.
'Reasonable use' is the reproduction of small excerpts for non-commercial, educational, or informational purposes in accordance with specific rules.
