Public.Resource.org v. United States Internal Revenue Service

Filing 55

Declaration of Tim Bray in Support of 47 MOTION for Summary Judgment Plaintiff Public.Resource.Org's Consolidated Cross-Motion for Summary Judgment and Opposition to Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment filed byPublic.Resource.org. (Related document(s) 47 ) (Burke, Thomas) (Filed on 9/29/2014)

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DAVIS WRIGHT TREMAINE LLP

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THOMAS R. BURKE (CA State Bar No. 141930)
DAVIS WRIGHT TREMAINE LLP
505 Montgomery Street, Suite 800
San Francisco, California 94111
Telephone:
[phone]
Facsimile:
[phone]
Email:
[e-mail]
RONALD G. LONDON (Pro Hac Vice)
DAVIS WRIGHT TREMAINE LLP
1919 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Suite 800
Washington, DC 20006
Telephone:
[phone]
Email:
[e-mail]
DAN LAIDMAN (State Bar No. 274482)
DAVIS WRIGHT TREMAINE LLP
865 South Figueroa Street, Suite 2400
Los Angeles, CA 90017-2566
Telephone:
[phone]
Facsimile:
[phone]
Email:
[e-mail]
DAVID HALPERIN (Pro Hac Vice)
1530 P Street NW
Washington, DC 20005
Telephone:
[phone]
Email:
[e-mail]
Attorneys for Plaintiff Public.Resource.Org

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IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

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THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

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SAN FRANCISCO DIVISION

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PUBLIC.RESOURCE.ORG., a California non- ) Case No. 3:13-CV-02789-WHO
profit organization,
)
)
Plaintiff,
) DECLARATION OF TIM BRAY
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v.
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UNITED STATES INTERNAL REVENUE
)
SERVICE,
)
)
Defendant.
)

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Declaration of Tim Bray
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I, Tim Bray, declare as follows:

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1.

I have been a professional computer programmer since 1981. I have personal

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knowledge of the matters stated in this declaration and could competently testify to them if called

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as a witness.

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2.

From 1989 to 1996, I served as co-founder, CEO, and Senior Vice President of

Open Text Corporation, which developed one of the first Internet search engines.
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From 2004 to 2009, I was a Distinguished Engineer and Director of Web

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Technologies at Sun Microsystems. I have held a number of other engineering positions at

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corporations such as Google and the Digital Equipment Corporation and have been an active

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participant in the Internet standards process.
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From 1996 to 2003 I was an Invited Expert to the World Wide Web Consortium,

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the standards-making body for the World Wide Web. Named by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, I served on

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the Technical Architecture Group, the group charged with stewardship of the World Wide Web

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architecture.

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5.

In 1998, I served as the co-editor of the technical specification for the Extensible

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Markup Language (XML) 1.0. The current version of this Internet standard can be found at

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http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml/.

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In 1998 and 1999, I served as the co-editor of the technical specification for

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Namespaces in XML. The current version of this Internet standard can be found at

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http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml-names/

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In 2014, I served as the editor of the JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) Data

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Interchange Format, which has been published by the Internet Engineering Task Force as Request

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for Comment 7159. This Internet standard may be found at

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http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc7159.txt.

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8.

I have examined some of the documentation provided by the Internal Revenue

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Service on the Modernized e-file (MeF) Program. That documentation is available at

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http://www.irs.gov/Tax-Professionals/e-File-Providers-&-Partners/Modernized-e-File-Program-

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Information.

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Declaration of Tim Bray
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I do not consider myself an expert on the MeF program, but I believe I understand

the basics of the system and have sufficient knowledge to comment on the following points.
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The MeF submission format for IRS returns is based partly on the standards that I

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helped develop, including XML and XML namespaces. The format of a MeF submission is

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described in detail in the 2014 MeF Submission Composition Guide, which I have examined. It

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can be found at http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-schema/MeF_Submission_Composition_Guide_v1-

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4.pdf. A MeF submission consists of a single XML file representing the return, such as an

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individual return, a corporate return, or a nonprofit return. The return may be accompanied by

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zero, one, or more PDF files which are attachments to the submission. The submission itself is

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transmitted to the IRS using a protocol known as SOAP, which is also based on XML.
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A "schema" is a description of the structure of an XML document, such as an IRS

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MeF return. The schemas for the Form 990, which are found in the IRS publication "990/990-

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EZ/990-PF TY2014 v1.0 Schema, Business Rules and Release Memo," describe the structure of a

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Form 990 submission. These materials can be found at http://www.irs.gov/Charities-&-Non-

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Profits/990-990-EZ-990-PF-TY2014-v1.0-Schema,-Business-Rules,-and-Release-Memo.

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It is my understanding that before the IRS can release a Form 990 to the public,

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certain materials that are not available for public inspection must be removed. Specifically, the

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IRS must remove the Schedule B, Schedule of Contributors. In this affidavit, I am providing my

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opinion as to the technical difficulty and feasibility of removing an XML element, such as the

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Schedule B, from an XML file, such as the Form 990.

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It is my understanding that the IRS does not provide a sample instance of an XML

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file for the Form 990 or Form 990-PF. However, I was able to examine a sample instance of an

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XML file for a corporate return based on Form 1120. That file is contained in the IRS publication

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"2014 Valid XML Schemas and Business Rules for 1120, 1120S, 1120-F, and 7004 Modernized e-

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File (MeF)." That information can be found at http://www.irs.gov/Tax-Professionals/e-File-

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Providers-&-Partners/2014-Valid-XML-Schemas-and-Business-Rules-for-1120-1120S-1120-F-

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and-7004-Modernized-e-File.

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Declaration of Tim Bray
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14.

The name of the file that I examined is

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Example_TransmissionWithConsolidatedReturn.xml. Based on my examination of the

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Composition Guide and the fact that the Schemas for Corporate Returns are constructed the same

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as the Schemas for Exempt Organization returns, I believe that the file I have examined uses the

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same structure as a Form 990 file in MEF format. A copy of the file I examined is available at

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https://bulk.resource.org/irs.gov/eo/doc/doc/Example_TransmissionWithConsolidatedReturn.xml.

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In order to remove (redact) one element nested inside an XML file, I use a common

programmers’ tool called a "text editor." Any professional programmer has access to such

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software. In this case, I used a text editor called emacs. Other examples of text editors are

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"TextEdit" on an Apple computer, "Vim" on any Linux computer, and "Notepad" on any

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Windows computer.

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I was able to open the file Example_TransmissionWithConsolidatedReturn.xml in

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the emacs text editor, remove the element named IRS1120ScheduleB, and save the file with a new

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name to avoid overwriting the original. That test took me 1 minute and 4 seconds to complete.

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There are a variety of text editors which are either specialized for use with XML or

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for which there are available specialized “modes” for handling XML. Emacs has such a mode,

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and I used it to ensure that I had not damaged the logical structure of the file in removing the

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IRS1120ScheduleB element.

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As a computer programmer, I could write a very simple program to remove any

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designated element from an XML file. A technology called “XSLT” is commonly used to

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construct such programs. The IRS provides XSLT-based programs to users of the MeF Program

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to transform MeF data into other formats, such as an HTML page for viewing in a standard web

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browser. The IRS makes these available at http://www.irs.gov/Tax-Professionals/e-File-Providers-

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&-Partners/Modernized-e-File-MeF-Stylesheets. Using a very simple XSLT-based program, one

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could easily and systematically remove a specific schedule from a large number of XML files.

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Instead of XSLT, there are a number of other techniques one could use to

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systematically remove a specific schedule (or a list of specific schedules) from a number of files. I

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would use a general-purpose programming language and write a simple program to perform this

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Declaration of Tim Bray
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task. It is my belief that it would take me less than half a day to write such a program. It is my

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professional opinion that the use of such a program would be preferable to the manual technique I

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used, as it would be less susceptible to human error.

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It is my considered belief that removing a single element from an XML file, such

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as removing the Schedule B from a Form 990, is a simple task that can be performed by most

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computer programmers on a case-by-case basis with very moderate effort. It is also my belief that

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writing a simple program to remove that element from a large number of files is also a very simple

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task and could be based on the existing tools that the IRS has already developed.

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I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the United States of America that the

DAVIS WRIGHT TREMAINE LLP

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foregoing is true and correct and that this declaration was executed this 27 day of September, 2014

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at Vancouver, Canada.

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/s/ Tim Bray
TIM BRAY

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Declaration of Tim Bray
DWT 24853899v1 0200593-000001