AMERICAN EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATION, INC. et al v. PUBLIC.RESOURCE.ORG, INC.

Filing 145

REPLY to opposition to motion re 136 Second MOTION for Summary Judgment filed by PUBLIC.RESOURCE.ORG, INC.. (Attachments: # 1 Declaration of Matthew Becker on Reply In Support of Public Resource's Second Motion for Summary Judgment, # 2 Exhibit 70 - 2014 Standards Excerpts, # 3 Exhibit 71 - 2018 8 NYCRR 30-2-2, # 4 Exhibit 72 - 2018 8 NYCRR 30-2-4, # 5 Exhibit 73 - 2018 8 NYCRR 30-2-5, # 6 Exhibit 74 - 2018 8 NYCRR 30-2-8)(Bridges, Andrew)

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
AMERICAN EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH
ASSOCIATION, INC., AMERICAN
PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION, INC. and
NATIONAL COUNCIL ON MEASUREMENT IN
EDUCATION, INC.,

Civil Action No.: 1:14-cv-00857-TSC

Plaintiffs-Counterdefendants,
v.
PUBLIC.RESOURCE.ORG, INC.,
Defendant-Counterclaimant.

DEFENDANT-COUNTERCLAIMANT PUBLIC.RESOURCE.ORG’S
REPLY IN SUPPORT OF ITS SECOND MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................................................................1
I.

THE AERA PLAINTIFFS HAVE NOT MET THEIR BURDEN OF JUSTIFYING A
PERMANENT INJUNCTION. ...........................................................................................2
A.

With the Passage of Time, An Injunction Has Only Become Less
Appropriate. .............................................................................................................2

B.

The AERA Plaintiffs have not satisfied any of the four factors for a
permanent injunction. ..............................................................................................4
1.
2.

The AERA Plaintiffs’ own argument shows the balance of
hardships weighs against an injunction........................................................7

3.
II.

The AERA Plaintiffs have not demonstrated that they have
suffered irreparable injury............................................................................5

The AERA Plaintiffs failed to show that a permanent
injunction would serve the public interest. ..................................................7

PUBLIC RESOURCE IS ENTITLED TO SUMMARY JUDGMENT BECAUSE ITS
POSTING OF LAWS BY INCORPORATION IS FAIR USE. ..........................................8
A.

First Factor: The Purpose and Character of Public Resource’s Use
Favors Non-Infringement.........................................................................................8
1.

The Court of Appeals suggested a spectrum, not a binary, to
guide the court in assessing the first factor. .................................................8

2.

Courts and citizens need a practical test for fair use of
standards incorporated into law. ................................................................10

B.

Second Factor: The Nature of the Work as Government Edict ............................13

C.

Third Factor: Using The 1999 Standards Document as a Whole is
Reasonable and Necessary to Fulfill Public Resource’s Public Interest
Purpose. ..................................................................................................................17

D.

Fourth Factor: The Record Shows No Current or Likely Future Effect
on the Market for the “Standards for Educational and Psychological
Testing.” .................................................................................................................19

CONCLUSION ..............................................................................................................................21

i

TABLE OF AUTHORITIES
Page(s)
CASES
A.V. ex rel. Vanderhyge v. iParadigms, LLC,
562 F.3d 630 (4th Cir. 2009) ...................................................................................................18
Am. Soc’y for Testing & Mat’ls v. Public.Resource.Org, Inc.,
896 F.3d 437 (D.C. Cir. 2018) ......................................................................................... passim
Authors Guild v. Google, Inc.,
804 F.3d 202 (2d Cir. 2015).....................................................................................................18
Bellwether Props., LLC, v. Duke Energy Indiana, Inc.,
87 N.E.3d 462 (Ind. 2017) .....................................................................................................3, 4
Bill Graham Archives v. Dorling Kindersley Ltd.,
448 F. 3d 605 (2d Cir. 2006)....................................................................................................18
Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc.,
510 U.S. 569 (1994) .................................................................................................................17
CCC Info. Servs., Inc. v. Maclean Hunter Mkt. Reports, Inc.,
44 F.3d 61 (2d Cir. 1994) ........................................................................................................19
eBay Inc. v. MercExchange, L.L.C.,
547 U.S. 388 (2006) .......................................................................................................4, 5, 6, 7
Lexmark v. Static Control Components, Inc.,
387 F.3d at 544 ........................................................................................................................18
Papachristou v. Jacksonville,
405 U.S. 156 (1972) ...................................................................................................................3
Sony Corp. of Am. v. Universal City Studios, Inc.,
464 U.S. 417 (1984) .................................................................................................................18
SunTrust Bank v. Houghton Mifflin Co.,
268 F.3d 1257 (11th Cir. 2001) .................................................................................................4
Swatch Grp. Mgmt. Servs. Ltd. v. Bloomberg LP,
756 F.3d 73 (2d Cir. 2014).................................................................................................18, 20
Thornhill v. Alabama,
310 U.S. 101-02 (1940) .............................................................................................................3

ii

TABLE OF AUTHORITIES
(Continued)
Page(s)
United States v. Mead Corp.,
533 U.S. 218 (2001) .................................................................................................................11
Veeck v. Southern Building Code Congress Int’l, Inc,
293 F.3d 791 (5th Cir. 2002) .................................................................................................7, 8
STATUTES AND REGULATIONS
1 C.F.R. §§ 51.1-51.11...................................................................................................................12
24 C.F.R. § 3280.4(aa)(4) (2019) ..................................................................................................12
34 C.F.R. § 668.148(a)(1)(iv) ........................................................................................................15
17 U.S.C. § 101 (“Copyright Act”)................................................................................................14
17 U.S.C. § 102(b) ...........................................................................................................................3
17 U.S.C. § 107(4) .........................................................................................................................19
8 CRR-NY § 30-2.2 .......................................................................................................................16
8 CRR-NY § 30-2.4 .................................................................................................................15, 16
8 CRR-NY § 30-2.5 .......................................................................................................................16
8 CRR-NY § 30-2.8 .......................................................................................................................16
U.S. CONSTITUTION
U.S. Const., amend. I ...................................................................................................................3, 4
U.S. Const., amend II .....................................................................................................................11
OTHER AUTHORITIES
John R. Searle, A Taxonomy of Illocutionary Acts, 7 Minn. Studies in the
Philosophy of Science, 358–59, 368 (1975) ............................................................................17

iii

INTRODUCTION
Public Resource seeks to do something simple but profoundly important: to make every
form of law available to the public, for free, so we can know, share, and fully comment on the
rules that govern our conduct. These laws include the otherwise obscure regulations that govern
the conduct of the many entities that educate our youth; build our houses, workplaces, and
pipelines; sell us the toys we give to our children, and so on.
The AERA Plaintiffs’ response offers no serious obstacle to summary judgment allowing
Public Resource to continue this crucial work. In fact, the AERA Plaintiffs’ arguments and
positions actually help tilt the analysis even further in Public Resource’s favor. On fair use, the
AERA Plaintiffs’ case depends on a misreading the Court of Appeals’ clear guidance. With
respect to the first factor, Public Resource’s use fits comfortably within the spectrum of
transformative and public interest purposes that the Court of Appeals recognized in its opinion.
See Am. Soc’y for Testing & Mat’ls v. Public.Resource.Org, Inc., 896 F.3d 437, 450-51 (D.C.
Cir. 2018). Public Resource also offers a practical rubric for classifying the 1999 Standards
document that avoids a legal morass of regulatory interpretation. As for the second factor, it
heavily favors fair use where, as here, “the consequence of incorporation by reference is virtually
indistinguishable from a situation in which the standard had been expressly copied into law . . . .”
Id. at 452. On the third factor, Public Resource’s posting of the entire document was necessary to
present the full law that the federal government had twice adopted as its own speech by
reference. Finally, the significant passage of time since Public Resource has posted the 1999
Standards, as well as the AERA Plaintiffs’ own conduct, has provided ample opportunity to
collect evidence of any possible market effects. The updated record shows an absence of any
adverse effect on the market for the 1999 Standards (or for the 2014 Standards).

1

On the motion for a permanent injunction, the AERA Plaintiffs’ position has only
worsened: it is now abundantly clear that they cannot show any harm from Public Resource’s
conduct or that an injunction would serve the public interest. Indeed, the Plaintiffs have barely
attempted to satisfy the four factors that are necessary to obtain a permanent injunction, much
less succeeded. And because that is the only relief the Plaintiffs seek, the Court may actually
render this case moot by denying the permanent injunction. Therefore, Public Resource again
takes the admittedly unusual step of turning first to the issue of relief in the argument below.
On every issue, the record is now clear: Public Resource deserves summary judgment
because its use is fair and the Plaintiffs cannot meet any element of the standard for a permanent
injunction.
I.

THE AERA PLAINTIFFS HAVE NOT MET THEIR BURDEN OF JUSTIFYING
A PERMANENT INJUNCTION.
The AERA Plaintiffs present their first and only argument for a permanent injunction in

their reply brief. They provide too little too late.
A.

With the Passage of Time, An Injunction Has Only Become Less
Appropriate.

The AERA Plaintiffs pretend that nothing has changed since the first motion for
permanent injunction, presuming that the Court will automatically order a new injunction
without argument, based solely on papers from three and a half years ago. That is not how
injunctions work; now, as before, a party seeking injunctive relief must justify it.
The AERA Plaintiffs cannot do so. In particular, and despite the passage of additional
time, the AERA Plaintiffs have not been able to point to any harms that they have suffered from
Public Resource’s posting of the standards. To the contrary, it is clearer than ever that Public
Resource’s activities have not harmed and will not harm the AERA Plaintiffs. See Public
Resource’s Supplemental Statement of Material Facts (“SSMF”) ¶¶ 51-63.
2

Moreover, the decision of the Court of Appeals recognized the “serious constitutional
concern with permitting private ownership of standards essential to understanding legal
obligations.” Am. Soc. For Testing and Materials, et al. v. Public.Resource.Org, 896 F.3d 437,
447 (D.C. Cir. 2018). Even apart from the merits, this constitutional concern must influence the
Court’s evaluation of injunctive relief. Due process requires that persons be able to know and
understand the law. “Living under a rule of law entails various suppositions, one of which is that
‘[all persons] are entitled to be informed as to what the State commands or
forbids.’” Papachristou v. Jacksonville, 405 U.S. 156, 162 (1972) (quoting Lanzetta v. New
Jersey, 306 U. S. 451, 453 (1939)). Moreover, under the First Amendment, “[t]he freedom of
speech and of the press guaranteed by the Constitution embraces at the least the liberty to discuss
publicly and truthfully all matters of public concern without previous restraint or fear of
subsequent punishment.” Thornhill v. Alabama, 310 U.S. 101-02 (1940). As the Indiana
Supreme Court observed in Bellwether Props., LLC, v. Duke Energy Indiana, Inc., addressing
precisely the constitutional problem of restricted access to standards incorporated by reference
into law:
It is a maxim of universal application that every man is presumed to know the
law, and it would seem inherent that freedom of access to the laws, or the official
interpretations of those laws, should be coextensive with the sweep of the maxim.
Knowledge is the only just condition of obedience. The laws of Rome were
written on tablets and posted, that all might read, and all were bound to
obedience. Ex parte Brown, 166 Ind. 593, 611, 78 N.E. 553, 559 (1906) (citation
omitted). If the rule of law means anything, it is that persons have meaningful
access to the laws they are obliged to follow, so they can conform their conduct
accordingly.
87 N.E.3d 462, 467 (Ind. 2017).
The Court of Appeals also held in abeyance, and explicitly reserved, the other defenses
that Public Resource had raised, such as whether the Standards are copyrightable as law or
whether the merger doctrine and 17 U.S.C. § 102(b) preclude enforcement. Those First
3

Amendment-infused copyright issues remain serious issues in the case, even if a fair use ruling
for Public Resource would make them moot, and should color the overall context in which the
court evaluates an injunction. As the Eleventh Circuit has noted in the context of injunctive
relief, “the public interest is always served in promoting First Amendment values . . . .” SunTrust
Bank v. Houghton Mifflin Co., 268 F.3d 1257, 1276 (11th Cir. 2001).
Finally, a recent decision of the Indiana Supreme Court has helped illuminate one
consequence of impeding access to obsolete standards that remain laws: even courts may not be
able to find them. See Bellwether, 87 N.E.3d at 468-69. The importance of unfettered access to
the law for all, including citizens and government officials, is particularly important here, where
the AERA Plaintiffs claim that the copyright statutory monopoly gives them the right to keep the
1999 Standards off the market. Overcoming that strong public interest is a heavy burden; the
AERA Plaintiffs do not meet it.
B.

The AERA Plaintiffs have not satisfied any of the four factors for a
permanent injunction.

The AERA Plaintiffs presume that they are entitled to a permanent injunction if they
prevail on the question of fair use now before the Court. The Supreme Court says otherwise;
indeed, it “has consistently rejected invitations to replace traditional equitable considerations
with a rule that an injunction automatically follows a determination that a copyright has been
infringed.” eBay Inc. v. MercExchange, L.L.C., 547 U.S. 388, 391 (2006) at 392-93. That refusal
is especially appropriate here, where even a ruling for the AERA Plaintiffs on fair use does not
resolve the merits but rather signals a need to address other doctrines, which the Court of
Appeals held in abeyance, that may independently preclude a finding of infringement.
Under eBay, the AERA Plaintiffs have the burden of demonstrating
(1) that [they have] suffered an irreparable injury; (2) that remedies available at law, such
as monetary damages, are inadequate to compensate for that injury; (3) that, considering
4

the balance of hardships between the plaintiff and defendant, a remedy in equity is
warranted; and (4) that the public interest would not be disserved by a permanent
injunction.
Id. They cannot meet any of these requirements.1
1.

The AERA Plaintiffs have not demonstrated that they have suffered
irreparable injury.

After years of litigation, the AERA Plaintiffs still cannot point to any economic harm
from Public Resource’s posting of the standards. Indeed, as Public Resource explained in its
opening brief, whenever Public Resource’s posting of the standards was available to the public,
sales of the standards increased. Public Resource’s Mem. of Law in Opp. to Pltfs. Mot. For
Summary Judgment and In Support of Public Resource’s Mot. for Summary Judgment [Dkt.
137] (“PRO Opening Br.”) at 17-18. Any effect on those sales came from the AERA Plaintiffs
themselves, first by taking the standards off the market and then again when, hoping to shore up
the claim that they had a market that might be injured, they resumed selling the standards only
through a cumbersome purchase channel. While Public Resource had withdrawn its posting of
the standards, the AERA Plaintiffs’ sales were “near nil” in the three years 2015, 2016, and
2017. PRO Opening Br. at 17-18.
Unable to combat the strong evidence showing no actual harm, the AERA Plaintiffs
resort to speculation and hyperbole, insisting there is “a grave threat—the likelihood of rampant
infringement by additional persons and entities—that can only be remedied by an injunction.”
AERA Reply [Dkt 143] at 23. If there is such a threat, it would have become manifest by now.
As the Supreme Court stated in eBay, “[a] plaintiff must demonstrate . . . that it has suffered an

1

The Plaintiffs failed to respond to Public Resource’s point, PRO Opening Br. at 29, that their
waiver of a damages claim does not allow them to claim that their harm is irreparable. That point
applies to both the first and second elements of the Plaintiffs’ burden under eBay. Plaintiffs have
not argued the second factor and have therefore conceded it.
5

irreparable injury . . . .” 547 U.S. at 391 (emphasis added). If the AERA Plaintiffs could make
such a demonstration, they would have done so.
The AERA Plaintiffs also accuse Public Resource’s posting of spawning infringements
on the user upload platform Scribd, but they offer no evidence of how the material actually made
it to that platform. Plaintiffs conducted no discovery on this question. And if the AERA Plaintiffs
felt harm from any Scribd postings, they would presumably have taken steps to alleviate that
harm by using Scribd’s readily available copyright infringement reporting facility.2 There is no
evidence that they have done so or that any alleged “rampant infringements” have had a
measurable effect on any market.
Lacking any evidence of economic impact, the AERA Plaintiffs stress their impaired
ability to prevent public access to or communication of the law that their Standards have become.
See AERA Reply at 23. That theory plainly violates the Supreme Court’s instruction in eBay by
collapsing the merits and injunction analyses: the professed injury is the alleged violation itself.
The AERA Plaintiffs make the same error when they complain that “the primary threat
here is of future harm if PRO’s practices are authorized.” AERA Reply at 24. In other words, the
harm the AERA Plaintiffs see as “primary” is the harm that will ensue if Public Resource wins,
i.e. that Public Resource will rely on the precedent in this case to guide its future conduct. That
anxiety is not evidence favoring a permanent injunction against posting the document at issue; it
is an attempted (and insufficient) argument for why they should not lose the case on the merits.
Public Resource, and any other person, should be able to look to the outcome of this litigation for
guidance—that is one of the basic functions of judicial decisions—but that reliance does not

2

“Report copyright infringement,” Scribd (last visited Dec. 20, 2019),
https://www.scribd.com/copyright/report-infringement.
6

equal an independent harm. And the fact that the AERA Plaintiffs see such a loss as their
primary potential damage simply reinforces their lack of evidence that they have suffered, or will
suffer, any actual injury that eBay would credit.
2.

The AERA Plaintiffs’ own argument shows the balance of hardships
weighs against an injunction.

The AERA Plaintiffs stress that their most critical consideration is their right to exclude
others from having access to, or communicating, the 1999 Standards. They did in fact take the
1999 Standards off the market and then restored them for sale only through a cumbersome
process. SSMF ¶ 50. Given these facts, the Court should expect that the AERA Plaintiffs will
take the Standards off the market again once this litigation is complete. An injunction that would
empower the AERA Plaintiffs to control access to the law at their whim would cause real
hardship to the public, to educators, to institutions, and even to governments that rely on the
1999 Standards.
3.

The AERA Plaintiffs failed to show that a permanent injunction
would serve the public interest.

The AERA Plaintiffs’ “public interest” argument favors Public Resource. They concede
that the public has an interest in the free availability of written works, but they deny any public
interest in access to their 1999 Standards document. AERA Reply at 25. The vindication of
copyright holders’ interests cannot be the sole public interest at stake, because that would again
make injunctions presumptively available for any alleged infringement. Once again, this violates
the teaching of eBay. The countervailing public interest in unfettered access to the law must be
part of the analysis.
The AERA Plaintiffs also claim that failure to enjoin Public Resource will jeopardize
future standards development activities. History suggests otherwise. Standards development
organizations similarly predicted the demise of their industry after an adverse decision in Veeck
7

v. Southern Building Code Congress Int’l, Inc, 293 F.3d 791 (5th Cir. 2002). As the court in
Veeck itself anticipated, 293 F.3d at 806, that did not happen, likely because the persons who do
the drafting and revising of standards—the actual volunteers—do not need or demand any
copyright incentive to do the work.
By contrast, Public Resource’s opening brief offers ample evidence that a permanent
injunction in this context and on this record would manifestly disserve the public interest in
accessing the law. PRO Opening Br. at 31.
The AERA Plaintiffs have barely attempted, much less managed, to meet their burden to
justify a permanent injunction. Whichever way the Court rules on the fair use question, it should
deny the remedy of a permanent injunction.
II.

PUBLIC RESOURCE IS ENTITLED TO SUMMARY JUDGMENT BECAUSE
ITS POSTING OF LAWS BY INCORPORATION IS FAIR USE.
The AERA Plaintiffs make more of an effort on the merits than on the relief they seek,

but their case fares no better. The record supports summary judgment for Public Resource on the
issue of fair use.
A.

First Factor: The Purpose and Character of Public Resource’s Use Favors
Non-Infringement.
1.

The Court of Appeals suggested a spectrum, not a binary, to guide the
court in assessing the first factor.

Contrary to Plaintiffs’ interpretation, the Court of Appeals did not suggest that this Court
should organize its analysis based on a false binary division between documents that are essential
to comply with a legal duty and those that are informational. Cf. AERA Reply at 10-11. Rather,
the Court of Appeals suggested a “spectrum” that this Court could consider in determining
whether factor one—the purpose and character of the use—favors Public Resource. 896 F.3d at
442-43 (“At one end of this spectrum lie incorporated standards that define one’s legal

8

obligations just as much as, say, a local building code . . . . At the other end of the spectrum lie
standards that serve as mere references but have no direct legal effect on any private party’s
conduct.”). Notably, while the Court of Appeals suggested that posting incorporated standards at
the “reference” end of the spectrum may be less transformative, it did not find that such a use
was not transformative at all, much less disfavored. Id. at 450.
Accordingly, the decision suggests that each of Public Resource’s uses are at least
somewhat transformative, and the task at hand is determining how transformative that use is for
each incorporated standard. As to the 1999 Standards document, the Court of Appeals stated that
it lay between the “two poles” of the spectrum, suggesting that its use reflects a degree of
transformativeness. Id. at 443. While the AERA Plaintiffs argue that certain portions of the 1999
Standards like “comments and background material are more likely, if anything, to ‘inform’
about the law, rather than be the law,” taken in the context of the Court of Appeals’ instructions,
those portions would still fall within the spectrum for transformative use when posted to educate
fellow citizens. AERA Reply at 19. And the AERA Plaintiffs effectively concede that other
portions of the document, such as the bolded standards at the end of each chapter, are akin to text
that dictates a legal duty and therefore falls towards the even more transformative end of the
spectrum.3
Indeed, it is undisputed that private individuals, including test publishers and
administrators, must comply with the 1999 Standards in certain situations. The AERA Plaintiffs’
assertion that test publishers are not “obligated” to create tests that meet these requirements is

3

Plaintiffs’ reference to the phrase “primary conduct” (AERA Reply at 12), purportedly quoted
from Public Resource’s brief, is unclear. That phrase does not appear anywhere in Public
Resource’s brief or in the Court of Appeals’ opinion, and there is no “footnote 7” on page 15 of
Public Resource’s brief, as cited by Plaintiffs.
9

disingenuous at best. AERA Reply at 13. Publishers can either comply with the regulation or
lose customers who can only use compliant tests. And the AERA Plaintiffs’ claim that federal
grant recipients do not need to conform their own conduct under the 1999 Standards, but simply
take the test that is administered to them, improperly discounts the interest that potential grant
recipients and the public have in confirming the terms on which federal student aid is
administered. AERA Reply at 12.
Beyond that point, it is undisputed that the government’s incorporation of the Standards
is a fact: by that incorporation, the Standards have become the government’s speech and a
government edict. It is no different from the passage of a lobbyist’s draft of a bill into law: the
government has adopted that language as its own, and anyone must be free to report what the
government has said. While the “government edicts” doctrine affecting copyrightability,
currently before the United States Supreme Court in Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org., Inc., no.
18-1150 (argued Dec. 2, 2019), is not directly before this Court now, the status of the 1999
Standards—the entire document—as a government edict establishes the substance of the
government’s speech as a fact, and shows that propagation of that fact qualifies as a form of
news reporting to the same degree that conveying the entire text of a government debate or
proclamation does.
2.

Courts and citizens need a practical test for fair use of standards
incorporated into law.

Public Resource, the Court, and other adjudicating bodies need a workable method to
determine what documents should be freely accessible. The AERA Plaintiffs’ approach—
requiring the Court to determine, for each law and regulation incorporating a standard, precisely
what portions of the incorporated document are “essential” to comply with the law—does not
offer such a method. AERA Reply at 10-13. To begin with, citizens require access to laws and

10

government edicts far beyond that with which they themselves must comply. Is the preamble to
the Second Amendment “essential”? Does public access to the text of an oath of office of a state
official depend on whether the public must comply with the oath? Trying to parse these
questions does not yield a workable legal test.
Moreover, Plaintiffs’ approach means disregarding federal agencies’ own statements
about incorporation by reference and their formal expressions of incorporation which, when part
of notice-and-comment rulemaking, normally deserves judicial deference. United States v. Mead
Corp., 533 U.S. 218, 226-27 (2001). It also means a tedious and intensive process requiring the
Court to review every standard (each of which, like the 1999 Standards, may be hundreds of
pages long); each incorporating regulation and all related provisions that speak to the purpose
and scope of the regulation; the rulemaking history and comments; all relevant enforcement
actions by the agencies; and any other cases where a court may have addressed or interpreted the
scope of the incorporation. Each instance is likely to be an issue of first impression, and when a
regulation is updated several years later, the analysis would need to be performed anew.
Critically, the consequences of this cumbersome task would not be limited to this case.
The Court would necessarily have to determine the scope of the regulation; whom it governs;
how it governs them; and what portions of the incorporated documents are relevant to
understanding, interpreting, and complying with the regulation. These determinations would
inevitably affect the interpretation of these regulations in later disputes concerning anyone bound
by them, despite the fact that this Court does not have the benefit of a controversy involving an
enforcement or violation of the regulations before it, meaning that the Court does not have all of
the factual nuances that might emerge in other litigation.

11

Public Resource’s approach avoids this morass. The Court can instead focus on whether
what has been posted has been made law through incorporation by reference. If so, that fact
favors fair use. The Court need not make a detailed holding analyzing the scope of each
regulation, make law that will affect the rights and obligations of unknown parties in future cases
under these regulations, or second-guess the incorporating agencies. If an agency follows all
necessary procedures and incorporates an entire document into the law, using the process in 1
C.F.R. §§ 51.1-51.11 or other comparable processes, then Public Resource’s posting of the entire
document to educate the public has a favored purpose under the first factor. Where federal
regulations incorporate only certain specific (and readily identifiable) sections of a document,4
then posting only those sections has such a favored purpose. But in this case, the federal
government has twice incorporated the entire 1999 Standards into law.
Indeed, the AERA Plaintiffs prove just how difficult it is, under their proposal, to
determine how to comply with the regulations incorporating the 1999 Standards when they
claim, for the first time in over five years of litigation, that “one could assuredly comply with the
1999 Standards by complying with the 2014 Standards.” AERA Reply at 8. The AERA Plaintiffs
do not offer any evidence for this proposition, nor is it credible given the significant disparities
between the two editions. For example, the chapter on “Fairness in Testing” has 12 standards in
the 1999 edition (Dkt. 134-4 at 80-84), but 20 standards in the 2014 edition. See Declaration of
Matthew Becker on Reply in Support of Public Resource’s Second Motion for Summary
Judgment (“Becker Reply Decl.”) ¶ 2, Ex. 70 (2014 Standards excerpts) pp. 63-72. And many
chapters were significantly revised, including “[t]he chapters ‘Educational Testing and

4

See, e.g., SSMF ¶ 25 (showing how 24 C.F.R. § 3280.4(aa)(4) (2019) incorporates by reference
into law only specific portions of the National Electrical Code, such as “Article 110.22” and
“Article 210.12(A)” of that document.
12

Assessment’ and ‘Testing in Program Evaluation and Public Policy,’ in the 1999 version,
[which] were rewritten to attend to the issues associated with the uses of tests for educational and
accountability purposes,” and completely rewriting and combining the chapters on “Testing
Individuals of Diverse Linguistic Backgrounds,” “Testing Individuals with Disabilities,” and
“Fairness in Testing and Test Use.” See Becker Reply Decl. ¶ 2, Ex. 70 (2014 Standards
excerpts) pp. 4-5.
B.

Second Factor: The Nature of the Work as Government Edict

The second factor carries great weight where, as here, the nature of the work is not just
factual, but binding law. 896 F.3d at 451 (“[S]tandards incorporated by reference into law are, at
best, at the outer edge of ‘copyright’s protective purposes.’”). Public Resource does not argue, as
the AERA Plaintiffs would have the Court believe, that a document should be free to post online
in full “once some small part of it has been referenced in a statute or regulation.” AERA Reply at
25. First, a mere reference or citation does not carry the weight of a formal incorporation by
reference into law—cited text is not itself law. Second, and more fundamentally, Public
Resource agrees with Plaintiffs that if only a “small part” of a document has been made law, then
only that portion of the document should be freely posted for citizens to read and speak.
That is not what happened in this case. Numerous regulations refer to incorporation by
reference of the entire document. Plaintiffs’ claim that the incorporation of the “document” is
“simply an English language convention,” AERA Reply at 10, runs contrary to clear rules of
statutory interpretation, particularly where agencies are instructed to only incorporate precisely
what they intend to make law, and where the Code of Federal Regulations is replete with
examples where only discrete chapters, sections, or provisions of a standard or other document
are incorporated by reference.

13

In most instances, the incorporating regulations do not specify discrete sections of the
1999 Standards that a regulated individual or entity should consult, but instead refer to certain
general subject areas. The AERA Plaintiffs argue that they know what particular chapters and
standards the agency meant, but offer no confirmation from the Department of Education that
they are correct. Various standards in other sections of the document could plausibly apply.5
Indeed, given their new and incorrect claim that compliance with the 2014 Standards would
satisfy requirements for the 1999 Standards (see pp. 12-3, supra), it is hard to believe that the
AERA Plaintiffs offer anything other than their own subjective interpretation of the Department
of Education’s regulations. Moreover, the Department of Education may have had reasons for
requiring regulated individuals to be bound by (and therefore read) the entire 1999 Standards
document. For instance, there may be portions in the latter sections of the document that inform
the reasons for certain test construction or validation principles, and the agency may not have
wanted to leave out any valuable guidance.
The AERA Plaintiffs argue that only 6% of the 1999 Standards document is necessary to
comply with the regulations that incorporate it. AERA Reply at 18. This is wrong, and a review
of those sections shows why: The bold-faced “standards” in the document are curt, vague, and
full of terms of art that have specific definitions and explanations in the remaining text of the
document. Just like a citizen would need to look to 17 U.S.C. § 101 for the definitions of terms
used throughout the remainder of the Copyright Act, a citizen likewise needs to look to the

5

See, e.g., p. 16 infra discussing how Standard 5.12 from Chapter 5 addresses both verifiability
and reliability, contrary to Plaintiffs’ assertion that one need only look to the first two chapters to
exhaust any standards applicable to verifiability and reliability.
14

supposedly “explanatory” portion of the 1999 Standards in order to understand what each boldfaced standard requires.6
The AERA Plaintiffs’ discussion of the New York regulations is equally specious.7 They
claim that New York law only incorporates the first two chapters of the 1999 Standards,
addressing validity and reliability (AERA Reply at 16-17), even though the language of the
regulation refers to the entire document,8 and validity and reliability are addressed throughout the

6

See, for example, Standard 9.2, which Plaintiffs admit is required under 34 C.F.R. §
668.148(a)(1)(iv). Dkt. 134-2 (Pltfs’ SMF) ¶ 49. Standard 9.2 reads:
When credible research evidence reports that test scores differ in meaning across
subgroups of linguistically diverse test takers, then to the extent feasible, test
developers should collect for each linguistic subgroup studied the same form of
validity evidence collected for the examinee population as a whole.
Dkt. 134-4 at 97. The commentary accompanying Standard 9.2 includes important qualifications
that a reader otherwise would not be aware of from the simple language of the standard itself,
such as that “It is important to note that this standard calls for more than representativeness in the
selection of samples used for validation or norming studies. Rather, it calls for separate, parallel
analyses of data for members of different linguistic groups, sample sizes permitting.” Id. at 98.
But what is “validity evidence,” as used in this standard? To understand that term, the reader
must turn back eight chapters, returning to Chapter 1, “Validity”, in particular the text under the
subheading “Sources of Validity Evidence.” Id. at 11. Notably, this text is not the bolded
standards, nor even the commentary for the bolded standards. It is in the “background and
explanatory material” that Plaintiffs claim citizens do not need to consult. See Pltfs.’ SMF ¶ 45.
7

On October 8, 2019 the State of New York issued emergency rulemaking action amending the
regulations that had previously incorporated the 1999 Standards. From 2011 until October 8,
2019, the 1999 Standards were mandated under New York law at 8 CRR-NY 30-2.2, 30-2.4, 302.5, and 30-2.8. Becker Reply Decl. ¶¶ 3-4 and Exs. 71-74. After the October 8, 2019 emergency
rulemaking, the 1999 Standards are no longer mandated or referenced in the current regulations.
Although the 2014 Standards are now referenced in the current regulations (8 CRR-NY 30-2.2),
Public Resource is not aware of any provision that actually mandates use of or compliance with
the terms of the 2014 Standards under those regulations. Becker Reply Decl. ¶ 3.

8

For example, 8 CRR-NY § 30-2.4(c)(3)(iii) (2018) states:
For school districts or BOCES that use more than one of the local measures
described in subparagraph (i) of this paragraph for a grade/subject (e.g. one
measure is utilized for some of the district's fifth grade math classes and another
measure is utilized for the other fifth grade math classes in the district), the
superintendent, district superintendent or Chancellor shall certify in the annual
15

1999 Standards (not simply the first two chapters). For example, in Chapter 5, Standard 5.12
states:
When group-level information is obtained by aggregating the results of partial
tests taken by individuals, validity and reliability should be reported for the level
of aggregation at which results are reported. Scores should not be reported for
individuals unless the validity, comparability, and reliability of such scores have
been established.
Dkt. 134-4 at 65. Moreover, the AERA Plaintiffs’ own signed agreement with the State of New
York recognizes that the entire document is incorporated by reference, and provides permission
to New York to reproduce the entire document.
When New York asked for permission to incorporate “the Standards” and copy “all or
any part” of the 1999 Standards, the AERA Plaintiffs could have asked for the incorporation to
be limited to certain pages or chapters. Similarly, the AERA Plaintiffs could have asked the
Department of Education to incorporate only discrete portions of the 1999 Standards – or simply
paste those portions into the text of the regulation. Even today, the AERA Plaintiffs could ask to
revise the incorporation to include only the 6% of the 1999 Standards that they assert is truly
necessary to comply with the regulations; Public Resource would thus be motivated to post only
what is incorporated, and there would be unique content for the AERA Plaintiffs to sell. What
the AERA Plaintiffs cannot do is require the rest of society to ignore the actual incorporating
language, figure out the likely scope of the incorporation based on conjecture, and regulate itself
accordingly.

professional performance review plan that the measures are comparable, in
accordance with the Testing Standards.
Becker Reply Decl. ¶ 4, Ex. 72 (emphasis added). The “Testing Standards” are defined in 8
CRR-NY § 30-2.2(t) (2018) as the 1999 Standards. Id. Ex. 71. Similar language appears at 8
CRR-NY 30-2.4(c)(2)(i) and (c)(4)(ii); 30-2.5(c)(2)(i), (c)(3)(iii), and (c)(4)(iii); and 30-2.8(b)(2)
and (c)(2). Becker Reply Decl. ¶ 4, Ex. 72-74.
16

Finally, standards incorporated by reference are not just government speech but also
government action. Speech act theory, which concerns the ways actions are performed through
language, helps explain how language adopted by a law-making body in a legislative capacity is
fundamentally different in nature from that same language when uttered by someone without
law-making authority. When a government body incorporates the 1999 Standards by reference,
they become part of what philosopher John Searle termed a “declaration”—a special type of
speech act that brings about some change in its subject purely by virtue of having been
performed. See John R. Searle, A Taxonomy of Illocutionary Acts, 7 Minn. Studies in the
Philosophy of Science, 358–59, 368 (1975).9 Whether a legal enactment creates an obligation on
anyone’s part is irrelevant to this analysis; the key is that the language of the incorporation itself
brings about a change in the legal status of the incorporated material. In other words, government
bodies not only say something when they incorporate a text by reference, they also do
something: transform that text into law. Copyright law cannot prohibit Public Resource from
reporting the facts of that government action—facts which include the content of the
incorporated text. Because that is what Public Resource does, this factor weighs heavily in its
favor.
C.

Third Factor: Using The 1999 Standards Document as a Whole is
Reasonable and Necessary to Fulfill Public Resource’s Public Interest
Purpose.

The third fair use factor looks at whether “the amount and substantiality of the portion
used . . . are reasonable in relation to the purpose of the copying.” Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music,
Inc., 510 U.S. 569, at 586-87 (1994); Am. Soc. For Testing and Materials, 896 F.3d at 452. As
discussed above, the federal government has twice incorporated the 1999 Standards document

9

Available at http://hdl.handle.net/11299/185220.
17

into law. The federal and state regulations that incorporate the 1999 Standards refer to the entire
document, and people who seek to understand what those regulations require must do the same.
In those circumstances, “given that precision is ten-tenths of the law,” neither a partial quotation
nor a paraphrase of the 1999 Standards would fulfill Public Resource’s goal of creating a
complete archive of federal regulations incorporated by reference. Id.
Contrary to the AERA Plaintiffs’ assertion, courts have found the use of an entire work,
without modification, to be a fair use, when such use is reasonable to the user’s purpose. Such
works have included complete television programs, movies, books, computer programs, posters,
and transcripts of live events. See Sony Corp. of Am. v. Universal City Studios, Inc., 464 U.S.
417, 449-50 (1984); Authors Guild v. Google, Inc., 804 F.3d 202, 210 (2d Cir. 2015); Lexmark v.
Static Control Components, Inc., 387 F.3d at 544; A.V. ex rel. Vanderhyge v. iParadigms, LLC,
562 F.3d 630, 642 (4th Cir. 2009); Bill Graham Archives v. Dorling Kindersley Ltd., 448 F. 3d
605, 613 (2d Cir. 2006); Swatch Grp. Mgmt. Servs. Ltd. v. Bloomberg LP, 756 F.3d 73, 90 (2d
Cir. 2014). There is no authority or sound basis for excluding a “200-page volume,” or indeed
any other type of work, from this principle. AERA Reply at 19.10
This is not a case where “the incorporation merely makes reference to an external
standard,” such that “a paraphrase or a summary” would be sufficient under the Court of
Appeals’ framework. 896 F.3d at 452. Incorporation is different from mere reference:
incorporation makes the expression in the document the government’s own speech. The
Department of Education regulations incorporate the entirety of the 1999 Standards using a
deliberate rulemaking process, resulting in text that, “like any other properly issued rule, has the

10

The third factor is not relevant to the market harm analysis where, as here, the record shows
that no such impact has occurred, or is likely to occur. AERA Reply at 18-19.
18

force and effect of law.” SSMF ¶ 2 (Dkt. 70-64 at 3). This makes the 1999 Standards wholly
unlike, for example, the list of used car valuations at issue in CCC Info. Servs., Inc. v. Maclean
Hunter Mkt. Reports, Inc., 44 F.3d 61, 74 (2d Cir. 1994), which the relevant regulations referred
to only as an “approved reference[],” without adopting the used car valuations as the
government’s own speech.
D.

Fourth Factor: The Record Shows No Current or Likely Future Effect on the
Market for the “Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing.”

The fourth fair use factor looks at “the effect of the use upon the potential market for or
value of the copyrighted work.” 17 U.S.C. § 107(4). The record after remand shows no lost sales
attributable to Public Resource, for either the 1999 Standards document at issue in this case or its
2014 replacement. SSMF ¶¶ 56-61. In fact, sales figures for both the 1999 and 2014 editions did
not respond in any meaningful way to Public Resource’s posting, unposting, and reposting of the
1999 Standards over the course of this lawsuit. Id. Instead, the record shows that sales trends for
the 1999 Standards are consistent with, in the AERA Plaintiffs’ words, “the market arguably
becoming saturated, and publication of . . . the 2014 Standards, becoming imminent.” AERA
Plaintiffs’ Mem. of Points and Authorities (“AERA Opening Br.”) [Dkt 134] at 25 n.14; SSMF ¶
57. And sales of the 2014 Standards at its introduction proceeded on the same trajectory as the
1999 Standards in its early years, long before Public Resource began its work. These facts show
affirmatively that Public Resource has not affected the market for the Standards, and is unlikely
to do so in the future.
As a matter of “economic logic,” AERA Reply at 20, this evidence makes sense.
According to the AERA Plaintiffs, the 1999 Standards are obsolete as a statement of best
practices, and the AERA Plaintiffs discourage their use. SSMF ¶¶ 29 and 49. The AERA
Plaintiffs make the 1999 standards available only by mail-order form from a single location on

19

their website, and they do not include the 1999 Standards in their online catalog. SSMF ¶ 50.
These facts—not Public Resource’s posting—best explain “near nil” sales of the 1999 Standards
since the introduction of the 2014 Standards. AERA Opening Br. at 29, n.18.
Likewise, as sales figures of the 2014 Standards are nearly identical to early sales figures
for the 1999 Standards, the only reasonable conclusion is that Public Resource’s posting of the
1999 Standards did not meaningfully affect sales of the 2014 Standards. Plaintiffs’ alternative
explanation assumes two things: that demand for the 2014 Standards at its inception was greater
than demand for the 1999 Standards in a comparable timeframe, and that the marginal increase in
availability of the now-obsolete 1999 Standards caused by Public Resource’s posting led a
meaningful number of people to forgo purchasing the current standards. Neither assumption
finds any support in the record.
Faced with this significant hole in the analysis, the AERA Plaintiffs can only insist that
an adverse effect on the market for their standards “is obvious.” AERA Reply at 20. In effect,
they argue for an irrebuttable presumption of market harm resulting from verbatim copying. But
the Court of Appeals foreclosed any such presumption when it held that market effect cannot be
inferred from the mere fact of posting complete works on a public website (which this Court had
previously labelled “mere copying for commercial purposes”) 896 F.3d at 452-53, and “cannot
be sustained on the basis of undisputed evidence” in the first summary judgment record. Id. The
updated record offers nothing new to support the AERA Plaintiffs’ claim. The record now
evidences the absence of harm.
Public Resource need not prove that adverse market effects are impossible under every
hypothetical scenario Plaintiffs can propose. The fourth factor looks only at “traditional,
reasonable, or likely to be developed markets.” Swatch Grp, 756 F.3d 73, 91 (2d Cir. 2014)

20

(citing Am. Geophysical Union v. Texaco Inc., 60 F.3d 913, 922, 930-31 (2d Cir.1994)). Thus,
the Court need not credit the mere possibility that a would-be purchaser of the 2014 Standards
would be confused by the availability of the 1999 Standards, or that the AERA Plaintiffs will
someday choose to seek meaningful revenues from sales of the 1999 Standards that grow more
outdated with each passing year. Public Resource has met its burden of showing an absence of
current or probable future adverse effect on the market for the 1999 Standards, or the 2014
Standards, based on undisputed facts in the record. The fourth factor favors fair use.
CONCLUSION
The complete record after remand to this Court shows conclusively that the AERA
Plaintiffs are not entitled to a permanent injunction. And in light of the Court of Appeals’
opinion, the record shows that Public Resource’s use of the 1999 Standards is fair. For these
reasons, Public Resource asks the Court to grant its motion for summary judgment and deny the
Plaintiffs’ motion for a permanent injunction.

21

Dated: December 20, 2019

Respectfully submitted,
/s/ Andrew P. Bridges
Andrew P. Bridges (AR0002)
[e-mail]
Matthew Becker (admitted pro hac vice)
[e-mail]
Armen N. Nercessian (pending pro hac vice)
[e-mail]
Shannon E. Turner (pending pro hac vice)
[e-mail]
FENWICK & WEST LLP
555 California Street, 12th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94104
Telephone:
[phone]
Facsimile:
[phone]
Corynne McSherry (admitted pro hac vice)
[e-mail]
Mitchell L. Stoltz (D.C. Bar No. 978149)
[e-mail]
ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION
815 Eddy Street
San Francisco, CA 94109
Telephone: [phone]
Facsimile: [phone]
David Halperin (D.C. Bar No. 426078)
[e-mail]
1530 P Street NW
Washington, DC 20005
Telephone: [phone]
Attorneys for Defendant-Counterclaimant
Public.Resource.Org, Inc.

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