Pirated standards - could it be true?
Kenneth Wyatt- May 12, 2012
Aargh Mates, Chinese piracy has moved into the world of technical standards. I recently became aware of the site, www.e-standard.org, when the subject was initially brought up by Lauren Crane, of KLA-Tencor, on the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. He stated “{this site} has activated my ‘if it’s too good to be true‘ warning systems.” That got my attention to learn more.
Figure 1 - The FBI has seized the "Megaupload.com" site in Australia for copyright infringement.
Interestingly, the site provides a degree of legitimacy by a reference to the link, “Powered by American National Standards Institute”, at the bottom of the home page. This actually links to the real ANSI web site, www.ansi.org. Interesting, too, is that the similar URL, www.e-standards.org, (note the plural form) points to ANSI’s webstore, webstore.ansi.org, a legitimate web where one can purchase their standards.
Figure 2 - Amazingly, their site is still on-line as of November 29, 2012, despite my contacting several standards organizations.
Doug Powell, independent compliance consultant in Colorado, did some further research into the site e-standard.org. Apparently their payment site (Fashionpay.com) traces to Shenzhen Suhuitong Network Technology Co. Ltd. in Shenzhen, China (why am I not surprised?), but interestingly, the Internic report for e-standard.org points to a New York address in the same building as ANSI (different floor, but similar sequence of phone numbering). I suspect all this New York information is fabricated, however.
As Tom Smith, product safety and approvals consultant, TJS Technical Services, Inc., points out, “I am very wary of this particular site - we have all heard, no doubt, of how unusually cheap DVDs can be purchased from sources reputed to be in China who copy the original without regard to copyright. I also notice that e-standards.org goes to the real ANSI standards store with the prices normally expected, whereas the site in question removes the “s” and claims to be ANSI. It seems to me that they are trying to get traffic from people who mis-type the real ANSI standards store URL”
I spoke with ANSI Sr. Manager for Customer Service, Tim Dovan, regarding this issue. He quickly replied, “Thank you for the link and additional information. It does not look like a website that is ANSI approved or powered. I have forwarded the information to our legal team to further investigate.”
The pirated standards include dozens of organizations, including ANSI, ASTM, BSI, CSA, DIN, IEEE, IEC, ISO, NEMA, NFPA and UL.
I contacted several of the major standards organizations and received a quick reply from Karlheinz Ulmer, of IEC Customer Service. He replied, “We noticed mentioned site recently and are taking further steps in order to prevent such copyright infringement.”
After asking further questions regarding the issue of standards piracy, Ulmer added:
“Pirating standards is a growing problem, it goes along with the growth of the internet. Some people who violate copyright laws remove files and or access after we contact them. Some don’t, which means it becomes a case for the lawyer and a tracking problem, since they (or their server) might be based in remote locations. This process is evolving very slowly. One day legislation might adapt to the new situation (see megaupload as an extreme example that shows what kind of counter attacks are possible). As the popular example iTunes shows, service and convenience are rewarded. We intend to compete by improving our service and customer experience so that it pays off for our customers to stay with us, especially in the long run.”
I also spoke with Anthony Toderian, Corporate Affairs Manager of CSA (Toronto, Canada). He told me, “CSA Group is aware of counterfeit standards being sold, however, I will have to touch base with our manager of Anti-Counterfeiting, Terry Hunter, to see if he is aware of this particular site.”
Toderian also added, “Counterfeit standards have been on the rise over the last couple years. It’s not entirely been an issue in Asia or, specifically, China, but is worldwide, including North America.” He also reminded standards buyers that “in addition to standards sales, CSA also offers training to help understand and interpret the standards”. He’s concerned that sales of pirated standards are funded by legitimate standards sales.” As with anything purchased over the Internet, he warns, “let the buyer beware.”
As one anonymous compliance engineer warned about credit card fraud, “I notice pirates don’t use good grammar (Are documents are protected ..) and they don’t take American Express! Seriously folks, however you feel about the standards, what is really at risk from places like this is your credit card numbers. The standards may not even be real, and the only thing that gets ripped could be your ID. A booty of corporate card numbers may be the real pirate’s treasure. If you use your personal Visa, MasterCard, or PayPal account, you might be calling the bank to say that your card needs to be shut down, or that you did not get the goods that you were promised.”
Out of curiosity, I clicked on their limited FAQs to find out more (spelling/grammar uncorrected):
Are documents are protected by Digital Rights Management (DRM)?
Nope, all the file you’ll be receiving will be free of DRM, you could copy, past, do anything you want.
Are the documents at the?eStandards Store in electronic Adobe Acrobat PDF format only?
All documents on the ANSI eStandards Store are in electronic Adobe Acrobat PDF format.for immediate download standards,you could donwnload immediately after payment,for some other standards,We will send to your emial?upon purchase. Sorry, estandard does not sell or ship documents in hard copy. {Ed. Note: notice the reference to ANSI again}.
When can i get my document that i just odered?
All documents on the eStandards Store will be sent to your emial?upon purchase. For immediate download standards,you could download immediately after payment,sometimes you can not get the document immediately after payment due to time difference,but will not exceed 8hours.
On a whim, I contacted e-standard.org at their contact email and asked several questions. A few hours later, David from e-standard.org replied.
1. I recently ran into your web site, www.e-standard.org, and was wondering why your pricing is so low? Many U.S. and European standards cost several hundred dollars, yet it seems I can purchase from you for substantially less. Answer: if you could save moeny,why not?
2. Are you associated with ANSI? I see their link is at the bottom of your web page. Answer: Nope.
3. Are all standards listed available for immediate delivery via email (accounting for the time difference, of course) or do you have to order ones not in stock? In other words, are any currently on “back order”? Answer: Standards will be sent to your email after payment.
4. Your company seems new, how long have you been in business? Answer: {no reply}
Several discussion forum members felt the cost for standards was inflated.
Brian O’Connell, of Tamura Corp., added, “I have had conversations with a UL manager and a European IECEE member about standards cost; and both people indicated zero level of concern. To quote George Burns, No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible. I understand that there are costs to bear by the WGs and TCs that do this stuff, but have not seen data that indicates any of the purchase cost is used to directly support standards-development people. For the U.S., some of the standards purchase cost can be mitigated on the corporate tax (R&D expenditures or deduct them as a current expense) - but {I} am not an accountant so am not certain of specific requirements.”
Brian Ceresney, of Delta-Q Technologies Corp., also added, “I agree that many standards costs are hugely inflated. I recently received a quote for the latest EN60950-1 in network copy, and almost fell off of my chair! The cost was 4637 BP! Luckily, this cost included my international discount of 50% ; )”
Tom Smith added, “The real cost of standards would be considerably higher I suspect if it were not for all the volunteers who contribute time and effort into developing the standards. The standards that really give me sticker shock are Telcordia who charge money for participation on the standard development committees and then charge for many of their more popular standards by quoting based upon the financial condition and size of the company buying the standard.”
Regardless how you feel about the cost of standards, I believe we all agree piracy and copyright infringement is wrong. I’ll be curious how much longer this site will be on-line! One thing I love about the world of EMC is that we’re all a very tight-knit bunch and it was refreshing to hear all the opinions on the costs and issues of piracy. Thanks to all who contributed to this article. Feel free to chime in with your own thoughts and opinions on this topic!
Revised Nov. 29, 2012