Full responsibility for any product or vehicle shall always remain with the Website visitor, including but not limited to ethics, planning, due care, design, development, testing, compliance, marketing, advertising, manufacture for sale, sale, offer for sale, introduction, delivery for introduction in interstate commerce, etc.:

• Arete provides only the information of review and opinions, which may include prototypes for Arete’s sole use and research to provide information and/or for demonstration.


• Arete will not produce any final engineering drawings. Arete will not make, build, service, repair, install, manufacture, or fabricate any final product, including computer software, for sale to any market.


• Arete will not provide financial advice, accounting advice, insurance advice, investment advice, or legal advice. Arete will not participate in discussions or actions regarding any purchase, sale, or offer or solicitation of an offer to purchase or sell securities or anything similar or related.


• Arete and associates are not Professional Engineers registered in any US State, are not Attorneys licensed in any US State, and do not represent an engineering firm or a law firm.


• The Website visitor has sole responsibility and liability whether to consider Arete’s surveys, reviews, assessments, and opinions, but in any case the Website visitor shall indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Arete against any and all damages, costs, loss, and/or expenses.

Arete information and Deliverables are not “work for hire”:

• Except where copyright is explicitly noted otherwise, Arete will retain all ownership, right, title, and interest in and to: (a) the information and any Deliverables including, without limitation, all patent, copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property rights; and (b) all methodologies, processes, techniques, ideas, concepts, trade secrets, and know-how embodied in the Deliverables or that Arete may develop or provide.


• Within the provisions of any fully executed Arete Mutual Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA), the Website visitor will have a revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-assignable license to access, use, reproduce, and make derivative works of the Deliverables solely for the Website visitor’s own internal information purposes.

Opinions of estimates for information:

• Arete is often asked to estimate various qualities and quantities in connection with a particular project or Matter. Arete may be able to furnish a rough estimate based on its experiences so far. The Website visitor should understand, however, that any such estimate is not a guaranteed minimum or maximum.


• Arete cannot give maximum quantities proposals or not-to-exceed estimates. Arete’s estimates are not intended to be binding, are subject to unforeseen circumstances, and do not limit or “cap” any information, qualities, or quantities.


• At this time, it is impossible to predict exactly how much time and effort will be required to complete a particular project. This is especially true with respect to regulatory research, compliance testing, the Website visitor’s capacity for design, engineering, and manufacture, where factors that are not within Arete’s control can materially affect the timeline and ultimate qualities and quantities.


• Each Arete Scope of Work Proposal (SOW) is based upon the information provided by the Website visitor at the time of generation. Information omitted or incorrectly provided by the Website visitor at the time of submission, or a change or enhancement of topic or product added after the release of an SOW Proposal, could result in a change of SOW to account for an increase in information. Any additional necessity of information will be submitted via a change in SOW Proposal and additional estimates of qualities and quantities. Any adjustments will be agreed upon by both Arete and Website visitor prior to the initiation of the changed information.

Opinions of possible outcomes:

• Arete is often asked to state its opinion as to a likely outcome on topics regarding: regulatory compliance, standards, specifications, other requirements, design, development, engineering, and construction of vehicles, secondary cells, and rechargeable batteries, as well as crisis management relating to manufacturing, quality, failure modes, and recalls. Arete will typically offer an opinion to the best of its professional judgment.


• Arete cannot, however, provide a guarantee. In many cases, there are simply no clear-cut answers to such questions. It is not possible to suggest with certainty how a particular issue or Matter might be resolved at some future date by a government regulator, agency, technology development, market, etc.


• Arete’s reviews and opinions may change as new facts are discovered, and in some instances, the regulations themselves may be changed through legislation, agency interpretation, amendment, administrative rules, or by the courts. Despite these uncertainties, Arete will do its best to provide well researched reviews and opinions to help others make informed decisions regarding designs and products.


• Unless explicitly listed in an Arete SOW Proposal, a regulatory outlook is not part of any SOW.

Within the Website, any use of copyrighted works in whole or in part are for purposes of criticism, comment, teaching, scholarship, and/or research, which qualify as Fair Use and which are recognized as not copyright infringement under U.S. law:

1. The Copyright Act of 1976 as amended codifies the Fair Use doctrine and defense to copyright infringement. Specifically, 17 U.S.C. § 107 Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use (HTM, PDF) recognizes the public’s right to reproduce copyrighted works under certain conditions:


• Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include:


• (1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;


• (2) the nature of the copyrighted work;


• (3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and


• (4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.


2. U.S. federal statutes and regulations (“laws”) incorporate by reference hundreds of copyrighted standards necessary for product and vehicle compliance. Federal preemption of state laws means states cannot require anything that does not match exactly with federal law. Consequently, standards incorporated by reference into U.S. federal law are also incorporated by reference into all U.S. state laws, and U.S. state laws require compliance to the same U.S. FMVSS prior to operation of motor vehicles on public roads. By definition, all U.S. federal and state laws are public. All standards incorporated by reference into laws are required for proper implementation of and compliance with such laws, which by law must be published free of charge to all citizens subject to such laws. Therefore, any standards organization with a copyrighted standard that believes it is negatively affected by laws that incorporate by reference such a copyrighted standard should pursue the relevant government agency to pay for usurping the standard and releasing it into the public domain; the ensuing court case would answer the remaining question of the extent of compensation (or even restitution) due from the government for its sole liability of the causative event.


• For example, ANSI/SAE Z26.1-1996 American National Standard for Safety Glazing Materials for Glazing Motor Vehicles and Motor Vehicle Equipment Operating on Land Highways - Safety Standard:


• The U.S. federal regulation 49 CFR § 571.5 Matter Incorporated By Reference (FMVSS 5) administered by US DOT NHTSA incorporates by reference over one hundred copyrighted standards, including ANSI/SAE Z26.1-1996. Specifically, 49 CFR § 571.5(c)(4) incorporates by reference ANSI/SAE Z26.1-1996 “approved August 11, 1997, into § 571.205” (PDF). Therefore, ANSI/SAE Z26.1-1996 is incorporated by reference into U.S. federal law and consequently into all U.S. state laws.


3. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled in March 2022 that copyrighted standards incorporated by reference into laws are not protected from public reproduction, and on appeal in 2023 the Circuit Court affirmed the District Court deciding that the non-commercial posting of standards incorporated by reference into law is Fair Use. Specifically, in a series of multi-year cases and appeals for American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) v. Public.Resource.org, the courts explicitly confirmed Fair Use to publish any public or private standard incorporated by reference into law.
   See cases 1:13-cv-01215-TSC and 1:14-cv-00857-TSC (PDF 2017 Opinion), appeal 17-07035 consolidated with 17-07039 (PDF 2018 Opinion), reversed and remanded case 1:13-cv-01215-TSC and 1:14-cv-00857-TSC (PDF 2022 Opinion and Appendix), and final appeal 22-07063 (PDF 2023 Opinion).
   
   As documented in the ASTM 2022 Opinion and Appendix, there are four factors that determine whether the public “may fairly reproduce” a copyrighted standard incorporated by reference into law:


• First, the “apparent purpose is to inform the public about the law and facilitate public debate. [...] Further, the incorporated standard provides information essential for a private entity to comprehend its legal duties, which weighs heavily in favor of permitting” public reproduction.


• Second, “the express text of the law falls plainly outside the realm of copyright protection” and “the standard is incorporated into law without limitation such that ‘the consequence of the incorporation by reference is virtually indistinguishable from a situation in which the standard had been expressly copied into law.’ [...] Accordingly, ‘this factor weighs heavily in favor of fair use.’ ” (emphasis added)


• Third, “the incorporating regulation does not specify that only certain provisions of this standard are incorporated by reference into law, nor does it indicate which specific provisions of the standard are relevant for regulatory compliance, suggesting that ‘a greater amount of the standard’s text might be fairly reproduced.’ ”


• Fourth, reproductions as discussed here would not have a “substantially adverse impact on the potential market for the originals,” (which in the case of ANSI/SAE Z26.1-1996 is now over 28 years old) and the copyright holder would have to prove “by a preponderance of the evidence that there is a meaningful likelihood of future harm.”


• Standards that qualify from these factors ensure the public “may fairly reproduce this incorporated standard in its entirety.” Only those standards not specifically incorporated into law, or later revisions of standards specifically not incorporated into law, were decided to remain protected under copyright.


4. As documented in the ASTM 2023 appeal Opinion, “In a nutshell, the court found fair use as to the posting of standards incorporated into law and infringement as to the standards not so incorporated. […]. Despite finding infringement as to the unincorporated standards, the court denied injunctive relief based on its finding that Public Resource intends to post only incorporated standards and thus would voluntarily take down unincorporated ones in response to an infringement determination.”
   Consequently, public discussion of the law includes Fair Use of standards incorporated by reference into law, including ANSI/SAE Z26.1-1996.