[Seattle-editorial] FP: Voter Box Company Attacks Freedom

Mon Oct 20 17:03:03 PDT 2003

I could start working on this story as soon as
Thursday if no one gets around to it by then.

--- Sheri Herndon <sheri at speakeasy.org> wrote:
> hey,
> fyi
> this is news and could have a big outcome!
> sheri
> 
> ====== Forwarded Message ======
> Date: 10/16/03 12:36 PM
> Received: 10/16/03 7:36 PM
> From: wild at eff.org (Will Doherty)
> To: gekked at blackflag.net
> 
> Electronic Frontier Foundation Media Release
> 
> For Immediate Release: Thursday, October 16, 2003
> 
> 
> Contact:
> 
> Wendy Seltzer
>    Staff Attorney
>    Electronic Frontier Foundation
>    wendy at eff.org
>    +1 415 436-9333 x125 (office), +1 914 374-0613
> (cell)
> 
> Will Doherty
>    Executive Director
>    Online Policy Group
>    press at onlinepolicy.org
>    +1 415 826-3532 (please leave message)
> 
> 
> ISP Rejects Diebold Copyright Claims Against News
> Website
> 
> EFF Defends Right to Publish Links to Electronic
> Voting Memos
> 
> 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."
> 
> For this release:
>
http://www.eff.org/Legal/ISP_liability/20031016_eff_pr.php
> 
> Cease-and-desist letter Diebold sent to OPG:
>
http://www.eff.org/Legal/ISP_liability/cease_desist_letter.php
> 
> IndyMedia Web page subject to Diebold
> cease-and-desist
> letter:
>
http://www.indybay.org/news/2003/09/1649419_comment.php
> 
> Security researchers discover huge flaws in e-voting
> system:
>
http://www.eff.org/Activism/E-voting/20030723_eff_pr.php
> 
> Link to Chilling Effects on DMCA safe harbor
> provisions:
> http://www.chillingeffects.org/dmca512/
> 
> 
> 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 Online Policy Group:
> 
> 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/
> 
>                             -end-
> 
> 
> ====== End Forwarded Message ======
> _______________________________________________
> imc-seattle mailing list
> imc-seattle at lists.indymedia.org
>
http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-seattle

=====
-Benjamin 

"BFGalbraith"- bfgalbraith at users.sourceforge.net 
(H&S Project Manager- http://hack-and-slash.sourceforge.net)
Galbraith Games Website- http://www.squawkrpg.net/news
Why I am looking for another e-mail service:

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