Re: ASME (or other) Piping Codes and Standards

Sanjay replied offlist, giving me permission to post his response to the group:

"Paul Bowers" pbowers@pipingdesign.com Sat Aug 4, 2007 3:28 pm (PST) wrote (part):

>Unless Indian companies are paying drastically reduced prices for 3D
CAD software I don't see how purchasing ASME standards at ~US$450 each is a real burden.

Software price in India changes with the clout that a company wields and is open to negotiations. Generally an individual consultant pays highest-more or less at par with the prices you mentioned. Larger the company, cheaper is its acquisition price per copy and it also ends up receiving better services.

Most, if not all licences are non-transferable.

As usual, the consequences and costs of dealing with bugs, errors and deficiencies in the Software lie on the purchaser/user. Once stuck with a software, the buyer has to keep upgrading practically annually for the fear of his investment becoming obsolete. The SW company uses the buyer’s facility (of-course at buyer’s cost) as a testing ground and benefits from the complaints and feedback provided free of charge. It thereby removes some detected bugs, adds a few bells and whistles (and several new bugs in the process) and brings out a new edition or version.

The lifecycle cost of ownership for a buyer is thus grotesque. Other than some measly discount offered for being loyal (or perennial sucker!) there is no real benefit.

The funniest part is that famous waiver on responsibility. If you goof-up using a commercial-software, the SW company shrugs off all responsibility.

To some extent codes adopt this approach too. Indian standards on wind and earthquake loading simply rendered ‘unsafe’ many installations designed and built using them, merely by bringing out a new edition with changed values/zones. If ASME in its wisdom chooses to hike the allowable stress values, there is no one responsible to compensate the Owners of existing facilities for the higher costs incurred by them.

Buying decisions worldwide are based on ‘cost-benefit’ analysis. Point is not the cost of intellectual property acquisition in India or Bolivia. The moot point is what the user gets paid for the services provided using that investment along with his own knowledge base. When the investment ranges from being equivalent to half a day’s work to the earnings of an entire month, equations change. If investment were recovered after a day’s work, none probably would mind investing.

Some piping professionals on this forum would probably never have to refer or invest in a non-American code in their life time. Rest in-turn may have limited use for American codes. They might be required to use several European, Asian or local codes and technical literature based on them. So the requirement of codes and technical literature rises exponentially for them. People in areas with low man-hour compensation are unable to afford such an investment.

Should a piping professional buy API-610 or 617, just to refer the permissible nozzle loading table? Similarly there could be several non-piping professionals who just wish to refer only a clause or two out of the entire B31 series. Should they be made to invest $450 before they are able to do that?

Unlike what Chris suspects, I do not support or even condone thievery. Things however can not be put in mere black and white. There are several shades of grey that lie in-between. From time immemorial such copying of intellectual work or technology is rampant. Romans copied the designs of fast Carthaginian battle-ships in 200 BC. China, India, Egypt and other ancient civilizations have given so much to the world but I see no royalty flowing in.

Merely admitting that the colonizers ‘stole’ does not paint a saintly halo around their descendants. Are they willing to make amends and return the ‘loot’? No way! British crown would be devoid of its famous jewels if that were to happen. So beneficiaries of the ill-gotten booty are as much a party to the crime as those who actually committed it. Those at the receiving end love to preach principles of fairness and propriety to others, but they just have to dive into history-books to know where they stand.

So what is the solution? We have the age old system of having public libraries in place. Membership is either free or something nominal. In modern times, internet libraries charging moderate fixed fees or those based on time logged browsing, could be a possible solution. Some commercial ventures offering on-line code browsing are too expensive to be of any use to SMEs and individuals, especially from the not so affluent world.

That leaves out the matter of Software companies. Most of them are thieves and robbers in disguise. Although I am from the land of Gandhi and a practising Hindu, in spite of my best efforts I fail to banish from my heart negative feelings for them. If someone somewhere is robbing them, I feel that poetic justice is being done.

Sanjay Laturkar

www.proconindia.com Received on Thu Aug 09 20:39:00 2007