October 19, 2003

Firm's attempts to down hyperlinks an attack on free speech, says EFF

"Out, out, damn spot!" Black box voting is the
greatest threat we face...because it negates our
ability to remove the Bush cabal from power...
"THE ANTICS OF DIEBOLD, a maker of electronic voting systems, which has been leaning on ISPs to get them to prevent linking to a election of its internal memos here, have drawn the EFF into the ring. "

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=12180

Firm's attempts to down hyperlinks an attack on free speech, says EFF

Diebold tactic of attacking ISPs attacked


By Paul Hales: Friday 17 October 2003, 09:55

THE ANTICS OF DIEBOLD, a maker of electronic voting
systems, which has been leaning on ISPs to get them to
prevent linking to a election of its internal memos
here, have drawn the EFF into the ring.
The memos seem to show how Diebold sought to demo
software it didn't have and apparently installed
outdated versions of its GEM software in elections.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation says it stepped in
because it wants to defend the right to link to
controversial information about flaws in electronic
voting systems: "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, in a statement.

Diebold sent out dozens of notices to ISPs hosting
IndyMedia and other websites linking to or publishing
copies of Diebold internal memos. The only ISP to
resist so far, says the EFF, is the non-profit Online
Policy Group (OPG) ISP.

The EFF says it has been exposing some of the ways the
'safe harbor' provision in 1998's The Digital
Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) limits free speech
online. The act allows ISPs to remove content, or
force the user to do so, for a minimum of 10 days, to
"take itself out of the middle of any copyright
claim."

"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," said Online Policy Group 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." µ


Posted by richard at October 19, 2003 09:48 PM