United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit

“ Although PRO raises a serious constitutional concern with permitting private ownership of standards essential to understanding legal obligations, we think it best at this juncture to address only the statutory fair use issue—which may provide a full defense to some, if not all, of the SDO’s infringement claims in this case—and leave for another day the question of whether the Constitution permits copyright to persist in works incorporated by reference into law. ”

“ Disqualification for lack of impartiality must have a reasonable basis. Nothing in this proposed legislation should be read to warrant the transformation of a litigant's fear that a judge may decide a question against him into a "reasonable fear" that the judge will not be impartial. Litigants ought not to have to face a judge where there is a reasonable question of impartiality, but they are not entitled to judges of their own choice. ”

“ Second, they contend that the court violated the Anglo-American Extradition Treaty of 1977 by admitting "evidence of facts not submitted to the British courts during the extradition proceedings" and "evidence of facts which were not the 'facts in respect of which extradition has been granted.' " Third, they argue that the district judge erred by refusing to disqualify the United States Attorneys Office, or in the alternative, members of that Office, for bias and conflict of interest. Finally, they say the court should have sustained their motion to suppress. We consider each issue in turn. ”

“ To be sure, as we have explained, a proper accounting of the variation among these incorporated standards and of the fact that several are essential to understanding one’s legal obligations suggests that, in many cases, it may be fair use for PRO to reproduce part or all of a technical standard in order to inform the public about the law. In the end, however, whether PRO’s use as to each standard at issue in this appeal qualifies as a fair use remains for the district court to determine. ”

“ That the government is not then targeting the witness does not mean he might not eventually be a target. If all untargeted witnesses were granted compulsory use immunity then they could secure immunity from some of the worst then undiscovered crimes by merely testifying in court on a defendant's behalf. ”

“ A fugitive criminal shall not be surrendered to a foreign state unless provision is made by the law of that state, or by arrangement that the fugitive criminal shall not, until he has been restored or had an opportunity of returning to Her Majesty's dominions, be detained or tried in that foreign state for any offence committed prior to his surrender other than the extradition crime proved by the facts on which the surrender is grounded. ”

“ The regulation creates only one relevant legal obligation: the regulated entity, in testing vehicular emissions, must use gasoline that meets specifications expressly laid out within the regulation itself. The incorporation of an external standard merely tells the regulated entity how it can ensure that the gasoline it uses in fact satisfies the codified requirements. ”

“ It is too plain for argument that the conspiracy was not an offense contemplated by the plea agreement because the existence of the conspiracy, and all its details, although known to Wolfe, were deliberately concealed by Wolfe when his plea was accepted. If Wolfe's theory is sound then he could not be prosecuted for his perjury before the grand jury; indeed he could not have been prosecuted for murder had the conspirators done away with Meisner in order to silence him. ”

“ Allowing private ownership of the law, PRO insists, is inconsistent with the First Amendment principle that citizens should be able to freely discuss the law and a due process notion that citizens must have free access to the law. PRO also maintains that the Copyright Act itself, when viewed through the lens of these constitutional concerns, also supports extinguishing copyright, Second, PRO argues that, even assuming the incorporated standards remain copyrighted, PRO’s copying qualifies as a fair use because it facilitates public discussion about the law—a use within the “public domain.” ”

“ Although we thus recognize in principle the possibility of a disqualifying conflict arising out of a prosecutor's status as a civil defendant, we are nevertheless of the opinion that any conflict of interest that might have existed because two of the assistants here involved were made defendants in an action brought by Scientology based upon participation in an allegedly illegal search and seizure did not amount to a due process violation that would require vacation of appellants' sentences. ”

“ Reflecting copyright’s balance between private ownership and public welfare, the Act has long recognized that certain “fair use [s] ” of a copyrighted work do not constitute infringement. Id. § 107. Not all uses of a copyrighted work are “within the exclusive domain of the copyright owner,” the Supreme Court has explained, “some are in the public domain.” ”

“ We find, in short, absolutely no support for the claim that the criminal charges were either brought or prosecuted in a particular fashion in order to influence defendants to dismiss their civil suit. The government had previously acquired, as the affidavit for the search warrant fully supports, very substantial evidence of monstrous criminal offenses which no responsible United States Attorney could refuse to prosecute. ”

“ Any justice or judge of the United States shall disqualify himself in any case in which he has a substantial interest, has been of counsel, is or has been a material witness, or is so related to or connected with any party or his attorney as to render it improper, in his opinion, for him to sit on the trial, appear, or other proceeding therein. ”

“ Even our brief consideration of just a few of the standards at issue in this appeal reveals that it will not always be easy to test whether the purpose and character of each of PRO’s uses weigh in favor of finding fair use but, as the Supreme Court has remarked, “ [t] he task is not to be simplified with bright-line rules, for the statute, like the doctrine it recognizes, calls for case-by-case analysis.” ”

“ Appellants recognize that disqualification based on prejudice is required only if the alleged prejudice stems from an extrajudicial source. [FN71] Because every instance upon which appellants rely to demonstrate the trial judge's bias is either a judicial ruling or some other conduct that occurred during the judge's fulfillment of his judicial duties, we are tempted to reject appellants' argument out of hand. Recognizing the legal requirement of an extrajudicial source, however, appellants have attempted to create an inference of such fact on the basis of courtroom conduct. ”

“ Across a diverse array of commercial and industrial endeavors, from paving roads to building the Internet of Things, private organizations have developed written standards to resolve technical problems, ensure compatibility across products, and promote public safety. These technical works, which authoring organizations copyright upon publication, are typically distributed as voluntary guidelines for self-regulation. ”