EFF Defends Right to Publish Links to Electronic Voting Memos

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

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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