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EFF: Diebold May Face Consequences for Misuse of Copyright Law
From: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Sun, 08 Feb 2004 13:56:14 -0400
-----Original Message----- From: Joseph Lorenzo Hall <jhall () SIMS Berkeley EDU> Date: Sun, 08 Feb 2004 09:00:09 To:Dave Farber <dave () farber net> Subject: EFF: Diebold May Face Consequences for Misuse of Copyright Law February 8, 2004 Electronic Frontier Foundation Media Advisory Diebold May Face Consequences for Misuse of Copyright Law -- Tried to Stop Publication of Information on Electronic Voting Machine Flaws For Immediate Release: Friday, February 6, 2004 San Jose, CA - Nonprofit Internet Service Provider (ISP) Online Policy Group (OPG) and two Swarthmore college students are seeking compensation from electronic voting machine company Diebold Systems, Inc., in federal court this Monday, February 9. They are asking the court to rule that Diebold face the consequences of abusing copyright law to threaten the Internet connectivity of those who published or linked to a corporate email archive indicating flaws in Diebold's voting machines and irregularities with certifying them for actual elections. Case: Online Policy Group v. Diebold (case number CV-03-04913-JF) Date: 9:00 am on Monday, February 9, 2004 Location: 280 South 1st Street San Jose, CA 95113 Courtroom 3, 5th Floor Judge: Hon. Jeremy Fogel Represented by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the Center for Internet and Society Cyberlaw Clinic, OPG and the Swarthmore students are seeking compensation from Diebold for misuse of copyright law, as well as a court order clarifying that those who publish or link to the archive -- and ISPs who provide Internet connectivity to them -- have not violated copyright law. "Copyright law must not become a tool of censorship," said EFF Legal Director Cindy Cohn. "In this case, Diebold used phony copyright claims to silence public debate about voting, the very foundation of our democratic process." Swarthmore students Nelson Pavlosky and Luke Smith published the Diebold email archive, which contains descriptions of flaws in Diebold's electronic voting machines written by the company's own employees. Diebold threatened not only the ISPs of direct publishers of the corporate documents, but also the ISPs of those who merely publish links to the documents. The ISP OPG refused to comply with Diebold's demand that it prohibit Independent Media Network (IndyMedia) from linking to Diebold documents. "As an ISP committed to free speech, we are affirming our users' right to link to information that's critical to the debate on the reliability of electronic voting machines," said OPG's Colocation Director David Weekly. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), passed by Congress in 1998, provides a "safe harbor" provision 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 liability for such user activity in a court of law. EFF has been exposing some of the ways that the safe harbor provision can be used to silence legitimate online speech through the Chilling Effects Clearinghouse. Contact: Cindy Cohn Legal Director Electronic Frontier Foundation cindy () eff org Jennifer Granick Clinical Director Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society jennifer () granick com David Weekly Colocation Director Online Policy Group david () onlinepolicy org About EFF: The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the leading civil liberties organization working to protect rights in the digital world. Founded in 1990, EFF actively encourages and challenges industry and government to support free expression and privacy online. EFF is a member-supported organization and maintains one of the most linked-to websites in the world at http://www.eff.org/ About Center for Internet and Society Cyberlaw Clinic: The Center for Internet and Society (CIS) is a public interest technology law and policy program at Stanford Law School and a part of Law, Science and Technology Program. The CIS brings together scholars, academics, legislators, students, programmers, security researchers, and scientists to study the interaction of new technologies and the law and to examine how the synergy between the two can either promote or harm public goods like free speech, privacy, public commons, diversity, and scientific inquiry. The CIS Cyberlaw Clinic gives Stanford Law School students an opportunity to work with clients on cases and legal projects that involve questions of technology, law and the public interest. About OPG: The Online Policy Group (OPG) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to online policy research, outreach, and action on issues such as access, privacy, the digital divide, and digital defamation. The organization fulfills its motto of "One Internet With Equal Access for All" through programs such as donation-based email, email list hosting, website hosting, domain registrations, colocation services, technical consulting, educational training, and refurbished computer donations. The California Community Colocation Project (CCCP) and QueerNet are OPG projects. OPG focuses on Internet participants' civil liberties and human rights, like access, privacy, safety, and serving schools, libraries, disabled, elderly, youth, women, and sexual, gender, and ethnic minorities. Find out more at http://www.onlinepolicy.org/ About IndyMedia: IndyMedia is an international network working to build a decentralized, non-commercial media infrastructure to counter an increasingly consolidated corporate media. IndyMedia collectives have spread rapidly since the WTO protests in Seattle 1999, with IMC groups now working throughout North & South America, the Middle East, Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania, accessible through http://www.indymedia.org/ ----------------------------------------------------------------- Joseph Lorenzo Hall http://pobox.com/~joehall/ Graduate Student blog: http://pobox.com/~joehall/nqb/ ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as interesting-people () lists elistx com To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
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