NORTH AMERICAN ENERGY STANDARDS BOARD 801 Travis, Suite 1675 • Houston, Texas 77002 • Phone: (713) 356-0060 • Fax: (713) 356-0067 email: [email protected] • Web Site Address: www.naesb.org November 20, 2012 Filed Electronically The Honorable Kimberly D. Bose Secretary Federal Energy Regulatory Commission 888 First Street N.E., Room 1A Washington, D.C. 20585 RE: NAESB Copyright Policy Dear Ms. Bose: The North American Energy Standards Board ("NAESB") herewith submits this report to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ("FERC" or "Commission") regarding the NAESB Copyright Policy. The report contains an explanation of NAESB’s policy regarding copyrighted material, including the procedure for obtaining access to copyrighted material and the use of the copyrighted material by members and non-members in FERC compliance filings and tariffs. The cover letter, report and enclosures are being filed electronically in Adobe Acrobat Print Document Format (.pdf), with each enclosure bookmarked separately. The filing is also available on the NAESB web site (www.naesb.org). Please feel free to call me at (713) 356-0060 or refer to the NAESB website (www.naesb.org) should you have any questions or need additional information regarding the NAESB WEQ Version 003 standards. Respectfully submitted, Rae McQuade Ms. Rae McQuade President & COO, North American Energy Standards Board cc without enclosures: Chairman Jon Wellinghoff, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Commissioner, Tony Clark, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Commissioner, Cheryl LaFleur, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Commissioner Philip D. Moeller, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Commissioner John Norris, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Mr. Joseph McClelland, Director Office of Energy Infrastructure Security, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Mr. Michael Bardee, Director Office of Electric Reliability, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Mr. David Morenoff, Acting General Counsel, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Page 1 NORTH AMERICAN ENERGY STANDARDS BOARD 1301 Fannin, Suite 2350 • Houston, Texas 77002 • Phone: (713) 356-0060 • Fax: (713) 356-0067 email: [email protected] • Web Site Address: www.naesb.org November 20, 2012 Mr. Michael Goldenberg, Senior Attorney, Office of General Counsel, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Ms. Jamie L. Simler, Director, Office of Energy Policy and Innovation, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Mr. Mason Emnett, Associate Director, Office of Energy Policy and Innovation, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Mr. Michael Desselle, Chairman and CEO, North American Energy Standards Board Mr. William P. Boswell, General Counsel, North American Energy Standards Board Mr. Charles Berardesco, General Counsel, North American Electric Reliability Corporation Mr. David Taylor, Director of Standards Regulatory Initiatives, North American Electric Reliability Corporation Enclosures (all documents and links available publicly on the NAESB web site – www.naesb.org): Appendix A NAESB Copyright Policy Appendix B Companies with Access to NAESB Standards Report of the North American Energy Standards Board The NAESB Copyright Policy November 20, 2012 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION Standards for Business Practices and ) Docket No. RM 05-5-000 Communication Protocols for ) Public Utilities ) Standards for Business Practices of ) Docket No. RM 96-1-000 Interstate Natural Gas Pipelines ) ) REPORT OF THE NORTH AMERICAN ENERGY STANDARDS BOARD It has come to our attention that NAESB’s copyright policy may not have been understood by entities making filings with the Commission. The North American Energy Standards Board ("NAESB") is voluntarily submitting this report the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ("FERC" or "Commission") in the above referenced dockets to clarify its policy. The report includes an explanation of the NAESB Copyright Policy and the use of NAESB copyrighted standards in FERC compliance filings and tariffs. NAESB COPYRIGHT POLICY All NAESB standards are copyrighted and protected by federal copyright law. As such, NAESB alone retains the rights to publication, reproduction, display and distribution of the copyrighted standards. As a benefit of NAESB membership, members may obtain standards free of charge and make use of hyperlinks that will direct an authorized user to a protected version of the standards. NAESB will also provide a copy of any standard to a state or federal regulator upon request. Non-members, which include agents, subsidiaries, and affiliates of members, can obtain access to the copyrighted standards by purchase or apply for a limited copyright waiver from the NAESB office. Limited copyright waivers are granted to non-members for the purpose of evaluating standards prior to purchase and/or reviewing the standards in order to prepare comments to regulated entities. Once a waiver is granted, the non-member will be able to view the standards for a set period of time through the use of LockLizard Safeguard Secure Viewer,1 a document viewer software which will provide read-only access to the copyrighted material at no cost to the requestor. The limited copyright waiver will only be granted once per company for each set of standards or final actions. Any entity seeking a limited copyright waiver should contact the NAESB office. To use the LockLizard Safeguard Secure Viewer, the user first downloads software to his or her computer that permits the reading of the document but prevents copying, printing or other means of electronic distribution. Once downloaded, the user can easily access the document for the period of time that has been set for the review. A more complete description of the use of the LockLizard Safeguard Secure Viewer can be found in the recent 1 For more information about LockLizard Safeguard Secure Viewer, please refer to the company’s website: http://www.locklizard.com/. Page 3 Report of the North American Energy Standards Board The NAESB Copyright Policy November 20, 2012 NAESB newsletter.2 Should an entity require a waiver that does not meet the above requirements, such as an evaluation team, those requests are considered by NAESB on a case-by-case basis. By far though, the use of the LockLizard Safeguard Secure Viewer seems to meet most requests for access. Should non-members choose to purchase the standards, the standards can be bought by entire publication version, by topic, or by final action prior to the publication of an entire version. The costs of the standards and final actions are published on the NAESB web site.3 NAESB maintains a list of companies that have obtained legal access to copyrighted material, including the method of acquisition and the products obtained. This list, with an effective date of November 20, 2012, is included in the report as Appendix B. The list is updated monthly and is made available on the NAESB website through the following link: http://naesb.org/pdf2/copyright.pdf. THE USE OF NAESB COPYRIGHT PROTECTED STANDARDS IN FERC COMPLIANCE FILINGS AND/OR TARIFFS In accordance with Federal copyright law, NAESB prohibits the reproduction of any portion of a copyright protected standard by members or non-members in any FERC compliance filing and/or tariff unless a previous agreement between the Commission and NAESB is in place, such as the ability for entities to quote verbatim the full text of NAESB WGQ Standard Nos. 1.3.2 and 5.3.2. In the instance of such an agreement, the NAESB copyright is still in place, but NAESB grants permission for any entity to use the referenced standards of the agreement in the agreed upon manner. Any entity, member or non-member, wishing to quote verbatim language from copyrighted standards that are not the subject of a previous agreement between the Commission and NAESB must first obtain the express permission of NAESB and must reference NAESB’s consent to the request in the compliance filing and/or tariff as well as, where applicable, the transmittal letter. All entities, member or non-member, may, without obtaining the advanced approval of NAESB, refer to specific NAESB standard numbers in compliance filings and/or tariffs. NAESB understands that in the past, the NAESB Copyright Policy may not have been clearly understood by entities that may have had a need to replicate NAESB standard’s language. As such, NAESB normally will not pursue action for inadvertent copyright infringement against any entity that previously has used NAESB copyrighted material in a compliance filing and/or tariff without the express permission of NAESB for the WGQ NAESB Version 1.9 and WEQ NAESB Version 2.0. However, NAESB may choose to contact the entities violating the copyright held by NAESB to request removal of such recitations or to ensure that the entity has legal copies of the standards cited. From this date forward, NAESB will consider legal action against any entity, member or non- member, that verbatim replicates language from copyrighted standards in compliance filings and/or tariffs unless 2 NAESB publishes a quarterly newsletter that is posted to the NAESB website and can be viewed at the following link: http://naesb.org/bulletin_newsletter.asp. The most recent version of the NAESB newsletter, dated July – September 2012 can be accessed using the following link: http://naesb.org/pdf4/naesb_bulletin_vol5_issue2.pdf. 3 The NAESB Materials Order Form should be used to order any NAESB copyrighted material. The order form lists the cost of each item and can be accessed through a link on the NAESB homepage. Page 4 Report of the North American Energy Standards Board The NAESB Copyright Policy November 20, 2012 such language is the subject of a previous agreement between the Commission and NAESB, or the entity has acquired the express permission of NAESB. Except under the limited circumstances specifically permitted by the Fair Use Doctrine, NAESB considers it a copyright infringement to quote any part of its standards as part of filings with the Commission. Such limited circumstances may include Commission proceedings such as complaints, rate cases, and protests to rate cases. However, parties should always consult with NAESB prior to the use of any verbatim quote of copyrighted material.