Slashdot Mirror
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.
Their product, I mean - until it's passed a fitness certificate by a reliable agency. Dropping lawsuits is only a partial respite. The problem lies elsewhere.
If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
The logic is to punish the company for using C&D letters as a means to intimidate and harass. After all, they seem to now be admitting the C&D letters were baseless.
Meine Schwester ist sehr, sehr reizvoll - Nietzsche
IANAL either, but it seems to me that at the very least it sends a message that you can't abuse the DMCA without paying the fiddler. If companies like Diebold thought they could get away with sending worthless C&D letters to scare people, and then retracting it at the last minute before the case fell through, that's bad news. If the EFF's lawsuit puts some fear of god into at least one litigious corporate numbskull, then it's for the good of everyone, imo.
Auto-reply to ACs: "Truly, you have a dizzying intellect."
Companies like Diebold and its cousin, the RIAA, know that they couldn't win an actual court case against groups like BlackBoxVoting and a bunch of college students that get in the way of their draconian agendas, but what they can do is win a warrant to send their corporate servants, the fascist pig cops to trash the place, arrest the owners, take down their websites, and confiscate all their property, most of which is never returned.
After the harassment, they then drop the suits or whatever so they don't have to lose in court, and move on to other targets. The students still haven't won anything, but as long as Diebold machines live, democracy loses. The only way around it is for everyone to cast an absentee ballot, which HAVE to be hand-counted -- but it's not like voting makes a difference in corporate America, anyways. :(
I think it's excellent that the EFF is still going after Diebold. I think it's about time that corporate-types realised that actions have consequences, and that using the law as a big stick isn't a good idea. If you have a valid argument, fine; if you're using bully-boy tactics, I think the "throw away the key" attitude approaches mine pretty closely :-)
Simon
Physicists get Hadrons!
Amid all the talk of corporate bully tactics that will continue until the lesson is learned, it is worth pausing to consider the potential step forward in bringing more accountability to American society. The ability of groups like the EFF and the various university groups to spread information about something that a large company wants to keep hidden (and use the full force of the legal system to do so) and keep going despite all the pressure against them is certainly a "good thing".
I've finally got around to changing my sig
Since those claims are sent on penalty of perjury it would be nice to see someone lose a metaphorical hand for frivolous use of them.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
That Diebold is now realizing the folly of opening themselves to discovery that filing a suit against the sites hosting the data would open them to. After all, if I go to court and claim I'm running an investigative report, the truthfulness of my report becomes a legitimate issue in court. If you're Diebold, do you really want it to be a matter of public record that your equipment is insecure, poorly designed, and easily manipulated?
Who did what now?
Why is it that everytime a story about some problem with voting machines comes up yet another Slashdotter (yawn) comes up with yet another idea (yawn)for building a system that anyone could pick holes in in less than five minutes when the answer is that voting machines are not needed for elections?
The way to design any system is to start off by defining what it is that a system is supposed to achieve. The only answer that you can then come up with is a secret ballot on paper voting slips.
How hard is it to understand people? Names and boxes on paper, a pencil and ballot boxes and a counting that is open to verification are all the are needed.
No but, yeah but, no but...
"I believe that opposing it with violence is not only necessary but ethically justified."
Using violence does not take power away from the govenment, it gives the government MORE power.
It NEVER works. The only way for average joes to work the system is to pressure their elected things into doing so, without violence, and probably WITH the proper palm greasing.
-- I am. Therefore, I think!
It doesn't matter if Diebold (insofar as there is a "Diebold" and not just a grouping of people) truly believes that it's DMCA takedown notices are a legitimate, honest use of the law, although I find it difficult to believe that - it's far more likely that they don't give two shits about the legitimacy of it, and instead are trying to supress information that makes them look bad in an utterly predictable corporate behavior. Thier ACTIONS are reprehensible, at least to me. Thier motives aren't really relevent.
Yeah, sure, $10 million against the multibillion dollar RIAA. $10 million is chump change to them.
That still does not accomplish anything.
The best thing anyone can do is create public outcry, and pressure the press into reporting on this sort of thing. Unfortunately, even though NPR has done a halfway decent job reporting on DIEBOLD, as compared with the other bread and circus news outlets (e.g. FAUX news) people still prefer to stick their head in the sand. Destroying a machine at a polling place will not cure apathy.
In fact, destroying their equipment will get them SYMPATHY that the sycophantic republican press is dying to give them anyway.
-- I am. Therefore, I think!
"Enthusiasts"? Sort of makes it sound like the Bill of Rights is a remote-controlled airplane, doesn't it? (Hey, what's your hobby? Mine is living in a free society... That and Pinochle.)
Odd word choice in an odd story altogether. (Diebold, a banking company that makes ATMs, bought out this voting machine company. Amazing how their expertise in the one area seemingly doesn't translate. I mean, this story starts when someone cracks into their e-mail system using an employee's ID. Bad start to a story about the lack of security, yes? The e-mails show a geuinely cavalier attitude about the perception of their clients -- bizarre in a banker, you'd think. Then they bluster around sending their C&D letters, the effect only being to make their problems more conspicuous. Does this make sense in a company that makes banking equipment? You'd think they'd have their PR act together. Bankers do not project this sort of cavalier bluster.)
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
I cannot believe no one has mentioned that Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich almost certainly caused this to happen by linking to the diebold memos on his US Congressional website, and by calling for a congressional investigation of Diebold's legal actions.
Kucinich appears to be one of the few politicians who will stand up for the citizen againt the corporations. He is certainly the only presidential candidate to do so....
eat shiat and bark at the moon