Court Rules in Favor of Public Access to Information

"In a win for information advocates and the public, the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled that the American Society for Testing & Materials (ASTM) was unlikely to succeed on its claim that online research platform UpCodes infringed copyright by posting ASTM building standards on its website. UpCodes hosts a database of building codes and standards. ASTM, a private standards development organization, sued UpCodes for copyright and trademark infringement for publishing ASTM standards that have been incorporated by reference into law. In an earlier stage of the case, a district court denied ASTM’s motion for a preliminary injunction, reasoning that ASTM was unlikely to succeed on the merits because UpCodes’s copying constitutes fair use. On April 7, 2026, the third circuit agreed with the district court’s decision and denied the preliminary injunction."