Interesting People mailing list archives
EFF Defends Right to Publish Links to Electronic Voting Memos
From: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2003 14:38:44 -0400
Delivered-To: dfarber+ () ux13 sp cs cmu edu Date: Fri, 17 Oct 2003 14:45:18 -0700 (PDT) From: Joseph Lorenzo Hall <jhall () SIMS Berkeley EDU> Subject: EFF Defends Right to Publish Links to Electronic Voting Memos To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>, Declan McCullagh <declan () well com> http://www.eff.org/Legal/ISP_liability/20031016_eff_pr.php For Immediate Release: Thursday, October 16, 2003 ISP Rejects Diebold Copyright Claims Against News Website EFF Defends Right to Publish Links to Electronic Voting Memos Electronic Frontier Foundation Media Release San Francisco - Defending the right to link to controversial information about flaws in electronic voting systems, EFF announced today it will defend an Internet Service Provider (ISP) and a news website publisher against claims of indirect copyright infringement from the electronic voting machines' manufacturer. On October 10, 2003, electronic voting company Diebold, Inc., sent a cease-and-desist letter to the nonprofit Online Policy Group (OPG) ISP demanding that OPG remove a page of links published on an Independent Media Center (IndyMedia) website located on a computer server hosted by OPG. Diebold sent out dozens of similar notices to ISPs hosting IndyMedia and other websites linking to or publishing copies of Diebold internal memos. OPG is the only ISP so far to resist the takedown demand from Diebold. "What topic could be more important to our democracy than discussions about the mechanics and legitimacy of electronic voting systems now being introduced nationwide?" said EFF Staff Attorney Wendy Seltzer. "EFF won't stand by as corporations like Diebold chill important online debate by churning out legal notices to ISPs that usually just take down legitimate content rather than face the legal risk." The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) passed by Congress in 1998 provides a "safe harbor" as an incentive for ISPs to take down user-posted content when they receive cease-and-desist letters such as the ones sent by Diebold. By removing the content, or forcing the user to do so, for a minimum of 10 days, an ISP can take itself out of the middle of any copyright claim. As a result, few ISPs have tested whether they would face any liability for such user activity in the first place. EFF has been exposing some of the ways the safe harbor limits online speech through the Chilling Effects Clearinghouse. "We defend strongly the free speech right of our client IndyMedia to publish links to Diebold memos relevant to the public debate about electronic voting machine security," explained OPG Executive Director Will Doherty. "Diebold's claim of copyright infringement from linking to information posted elsewhere on the Web is ridiculous, and even more silly is the claim that we as an ISP could be liable for our client's web links."y ----------------------------------------------------------------- Joseph Lorenzo Hall Graduate Student http://pobox.com/~joehall "When life gives you SARS, make sarsaparilla."--Cory Doctorow, http://www.craphound.com/
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- EFF Defends Right to Publish Links to Electronic Voting Memos Dave Farber (Oct 19)