Diebold To Drop Suit Against Whistleblowers

segment writes "Fox News reports that 'Diebold said it would not sue dozens of students, computer scientists and Internet service providers who had received cease-and-desist letters from the company from August to October,' which is great for academia land, but one should still ponder using Diebold on any level: 'an executive scolded programmers for leaving software files on an Internet site without password protection.' Kind of a scary thought with all the United States went through during the Bush/Gore election, imagine the theories should a Diebold product be used in a situation like that. " Reader doormat points out, however, that "the EFF is still going after Diebold over the C&D letters." Several readers also submitted links to Paul Krugman's New York Times column about Diebold's approach to public trust and accountability.

Comments

Re:Well, it's official

[squiggleslash]

There's a subtle difference. The previous Slashdot article was about Diebold not continuing to use DMCA take-down notices. There was no word at that point on whether Diebold would actually sue people who'd put up copies of its memos.

Re:Well, it's official

[mattjb0010]

The previous Slashdot article was about Diebold not continuing to use DMCA take-down notices. There was no word at that point on whether Diebold would actually sue people who'd put up copies of its memos.

No, the first page of the first linked article says "We also advise the Court that Diebold, having issued notifications in good faith compliance with the DMCA, has decided not to take the additional step of suing for copyright infringement of the materials at issue".

Re:EFF *still* suing?

[Maresi]

They want a clear statement (from the court) that such c&d-letters are a clear misuse of the DMCA.

Read here for more infos

BTW (from the link above): Its not the EFF directly that is suing, they just help the nonprofit "ISP Online Policy Group" (OPG) and two Swarthmore College students .



--

Re:I'll say it for the millionth time

[mattjb0010]

Using non-open-source software for voting machines is just plain irresponsible. Hard to believe a continent entirely peopled by convicts [theregister.co.uk] is so far ahead of our blind and backward political culture.

Firstly, referring to Australia as a "continent entirely people by convicts" only shows your ignorance about the history of both Australia and America. Secondly, the electronic voting only took place in the ACT, not Australia, where voting is done via pencil and paper, not electronically for the following reasons:

There is no appropriate software technology for use in full preferential voting system.
Many voters, especially the elderly and those with poor literacy and numeracy skills may have difficulty with using the internet.
There is a risk of fraud and errors occurring in software without the safeguard of paper ballots to recount.
Start up costs would be significant
The AEC would need to continue to provide traditional voting facilities for those with no internet access

There's no "should" about it

[smchris]

"Kind of a scary thought with all the United States went through during the Bush/Gore election, imagine the theories should a Diebold product be used in a situation like that. "

You obviously haven't seen the documents. The most famous is:

I need some answers! Our department is being audited by the County. I have been waiting for someone to give me an explanation as to why Precinct 216 gave Al Gore a minus 16022 when it was uploaded. Will someone please explain this so that I have the information to give the auditor instead of standing here "looking dumb".

Lana Hires - Volusia County Florida - January 17, 2001 8:07 AM

The very point of releasing the documents is that a Diebold product helped _create_ a situation like that.

Get the memos here!

[skyfaller]

You can get the memos at the Swarthmore Coalition for the Digital Commons website... this is the campus group that was started by the two students who are suing Diebold.

And more mirrors

[skyfaller]

And if you kill the SCDC website, you can get a complete list of mirrors at papertrailpatriots.org and Why-War.

Re:Um... I thought Diebold machines _WERE_ used!

[revscat]

Diebold machines were used widely in the 2000 election, the 2002 congressional elections, and will be similarly used in 2004. Georgia, for example, exclusively uses Diebold for their polling machines, and other states are similarly locked in (although the list escapes me at this early hour.)

The use of black-box voting systems is a threat to democracy. I believe that opposing it with violence is not only necessary but ethically justified.

Re:It's a harassment policy

[Motherfucking Shit]

Ok, their machines may be a bit flaky, but do you have any evidence of "draconian agendas"?

Do you mean, like this?

Re:It's a harassment policy

[HomerJayS]

They cannot turn up at the polling station and ask to have their vote registered by hand, can they?

Uhhh, yes they can. Simply request a write-in ballot.

Re:EFF *still* suing?

[agentZ]

The part about "on penalty of perjury" refers to claim that the person sending the letter, usually a lawyer, represents the injured party. It has nothing to do with the contents of the letter. Check out 17 USC 1202 for the details.

How much can it cost to build?

[bearclaw]

Does anyone have any idea how much a secure and reliable alternative to the Diebold voting machines would cost to produce?

I mean, we plan on spending almost $3 billion in farm aid for 2004 - why can't we just set aside $100MM for a secure, reliable, verifiable voting platform? Would that be enough money?

??

Support HR 2239

[mdwebster]

HR 2239 is a bill in a House committee right now that Slashdotters should get behind. Also known as the "Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2003," this bill introduces, among others, two major provisions worthy of support.

The first is that every electronic voting machine shall leave behind a verified-by-the-voter paper receipt for recount purposes. This, of course, gives the voters an understandable avenue of recourse in the case of a suspect election.

The second is that all source code for running the machine shall be made available to the public. Not quite open-source, but, shall we say, viewable-source. This would allow security experts to check the code behind the voting-machine companies to make sure that it is secure.

Please check this website to see if your congresscritter is part of the Committee on House Administration and urge them to vote this bill out of committee. Even if they're not, showing support to your congressperson could lead to increased pressure on those in the committee to vote the bill out.

Re:EFF suing because of 17 USC 512(f)

[sunbird]

The key here is 17 U.S.C. 512(f) which holds copyright owners such as Diebold responsible for abusing the provisions of the DMCA. Also check out section 4 of EFF's application for a temporary restraining order (PDF is here) which outlines the claims against Diebold under the DMCA.

Although Diebold has agreed not to take any further action in these cases, that doesn't make up for the fact that they have blatantly abused the DMCA provisions in the past. It's kind of like being run over by a car, and then having the driver say, "well, I won't drive anymore." It doesn't exactly make you whole.

Also, OPG has asserted an interference with contractual relations claim-- essentially saying that Diebold is interfering with the contract between Hurricane Electric (the ISP) and its client, OPG. See section 3 of the application for a temporary restraining order.

Presidential candidate Kucinich is co-sponsor

[Cryofan]

US Rep and presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich is the co-sponsor of this bill, shown on his website.

If you slashdotters want someone who will back you and fight for you on Internet and software issues, Dennis Kucinich is the man. Diebold would probably still be going on with the lawsuits if Dennis had not defied Diebold by publishing links to the memos on his website.