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

EFF *still* suing?

[I confirm I'm not a]

IANAL, so would anyone care to explain the logic of continuing to sue Diebold over the C&D letters, when Diebold have stopped persuing the C&Ds? (Not flaming the EFF, just curious why they aren't going after other Diebold challenges to freedom)

Re:EFF *still* suing?

[SimianOverlord]

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.

Re:EFF *still* suing?

[Liselle]

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.

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:EFF *still* suing?

[AndroidCat]

Large organizations can fire a DMCA attack by just sending a letter claiming a DMCA violation. This frequently results in ISPs taking down sites or releasing names without any struggle at all. The target of one of these can try a counter-claim, but if the target is an individual, fighting back can be difficult even if the claim is completely bogus like a $cientology avagram.

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.

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.

Re:EFF *still* suing?

[Ayaress]

In effect, yes.

The lawyer sends the C&D letter on penalty of purjury. However, if his boss (Diebold in this case) represented to him that these letters were, in fact, justified, he isn't at fault, as he believed he was acting within the extent of the DMCA (Or at least there's not way to prove otherwise in court).

And to make things worse, when Diebold told the lawyer(s) that they were justified in sending the C&D letters, THAT statement was not made under pentalty of purjury. It's one of those loopholes in the law that really should be pulled shut.

Re:EFF *still* suing?

[zerocool^]

As someone who works at an ISP (webhost (netmar.com)) and who has been threatened with DMCA violations, here's the proceedure:

Upon notification, we must verify that:
1.) we received written notification
2.) the party claims, under penalty of perjury, that they are or represent the accusing party
3.) They specify contact info
4.) They detail what and where something is infringing
5.) They must make a claim, under penalty of perjury, that the claims of infringement, to the best of their knowledge, are accurate.

Then, we are not liable for damages, so long as:
1.) we didn't notice or had no reason to believe that the material being served was copyrighted
2.) Move quickly to remove it
3.) Do not stand to benifit from the infringement

Additionally, we are only indemnified assuming we:
1.) Have an agent contact at the copyright office
2.) Make the contact info for said agent available on our public website

So, there is a legal process for this, but, in order for us to not invite legal action, we have legal obligations, just as the accusers do. If the accusers make no statement, under penalty of perjury, that they directly represent the copyright holder and that the material on our system is theirs, then we are not obligated to remove it.
If they don't make the direct statement about their notice being accurate, then they have not upheld their end of the legal process.

Note to other webhosts/ISP's: You have to apply for this. You have to have your agent at the copyright office. As long as you are registered for DMCA protection, and you follow the legal process you're ok, but if you have no registered agent contact at the copyright office, then none of this applies, and no one has to make any legal statments in order to compell you to take somethign down by law.

~Wx

Re:EFF *still* suing?

[Anonymous Coward]

"So long as someone really does represent someone else, they can make any sort of fraudulent DMCA claims?"

Yes, but as soon as these claims become evidence, all parties had better have their story straight. You can say whatever you'd like until the part where you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. At that point you'd best be telling the truth. If your story does change significantly from what you said prior to the hearing or deposition, that might be a problem but it's not necessarily a crime. All that really matters is what's said under oath. Basically, documents don't exist until a judge says they do. And nobody ever said anything until they said it under oath.

I wish people would stop backing down at the first threat of a lawsuit. I think the reason is more probably because most people being sued are not quite as innocent as they would like to believe, not because a court hearing is automatically going to bankrupt them (this is commonly believed).

Re:EFF *still* suing?

[MrResistor]

IANAL, so would anyone care to explain the logic of continuing to sue Diebold over the C&D letters, when Diebold have stopped persuing the C&Ds?

Just off the top of my head, but this might be why:

The North Canton, Ohio-based Diebold ... said it will continue to monitor the online proliferation of the leaked documents, and may sue others who publish the data.

In other words, they admit that they're only backing off because of the bad press, and not because they've had an epifany that what they're doing is fundamentally wrong.

They should drop something else first:

[jkrise]

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.

Re:They should drop something else first:

[cgenman]

Their staff.

'an executive scolded programmers for leaving software files on an Internet site without password protection.'

No, an executive should have fired programmers for leaving software files on an Internet connected site without password protection. That executive then should have been fired for having such lax security practices at one of the most important NGO's in the USA today. Diebold should then be given 1 year to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that it's systems are secure. That year should culminate in 100 of Diebold's boxes being dropped into the yearly 2600 meeting in New York City, with any successful hack recieving 10,000 dollars and the honor of ripping up all of Diebold's contracts and co-signing the order banning the sale of Diebold election machines in the US for 20 years.

They should then go to Diebold's headquarters and salt the campus.

Seriously, giving a candidate a minus 16022? Faking demos? 25% failure rates? Intentionally making audits impossible? One of these things happening at a company selling toasters would be surprising. Three would be scandalous. But a history of gross mismanagement and neglect at a company that is the first and last word in American democracy is the highest form of the word "inexcusable." If they had done many of the things that they did intentionally, they would be arrested for treason.

There is nothing in the US constitution that says grossly incompetent companies in highly trusted positions have a right to continue to exist.

In other News:

[cablepokerface]

Kevin Mittnick very strong in the polls for the next presidential election, critics are surprised given the fact that he hasn't shown himself for some time now ...

Mittnick responded: "Erm ... it's all about getting New Hampshire I guess" as reported by out correspondend who spoke to him on IRC.

It's a harassment policy

[SexyKellyOsbourne]

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. :(

Re:It's a harassment policy

[October_30th]

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

I think there is way too much hysteria around electronic voting.

Re:It's a harassment policy

[maximilln]

If one considers the millions of dollars that are poured into developing electronic voting systems, and the millions of dollars spent on half-baked propaganda attempting to convince an ignorant public that such things are inherently secure, and the millions of dollars that are spent covering up for any flaws found in the system...

Well, all those millions sound pretty draconian to me. Additionally, if it takes that much money to convince someone of something then it can't be a pure honest fact.

Re:It's a harassment policy

[October_30th]

If one considers the millions of dollars that are poured into developing electronic voting systems

R&D.

and the millions of dollars spent on half-baked propaganda attempting to convince an ignorant public that such things are inherently secure

Marketing.

and the millions of dollars that are spent covering up for any flaws found in the system

Company PR.

Quite frankly, most corporations do R&D, have marketing people dreaming up ads to convince ignorant public to buy their products and try to spin bad PR into good ("It's not a bug, it's a feature").

How's Diebold any different? Sounds like circular reasoning to me. "Diebold is evil and therefore their R&D/Marketing/PR is suspicious. Because their R&D/Marketing/PR looks suspicious they must be evil."

In the end, nobody's forcing the states to buy Diebold's machines.

Re:It's a harassment policy

[plumby]

In the end, nobody's forcing the states to buy Diebold's machines.

But no one's giving the state's voters a choice of whether they should trust their votes to it or not.

Re:It's a harassment policy

[Afty0r]

Diebold isn't putting a gun to anyone's head forcing them to use Diebold machinery.

Being fair, if Diebold is using lobbying, PACs, and other forms of legalised bribery at the state or federal level, they are putting a gun to the voters head by proxy...the government rules by force. If the government or state, or county mandates that voters must use Diebold machines, they get no choice. They cannot turn up at the polling station and ask to have their vote registered by hand, can they?

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

[Fulcrum of Evil]

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

Well, their president promised his home state to the Republicans. How's that? Combine that with the fact that these machines are closed and, so far as we can tell, no real effort has been put into securing them or ensuring their correctness.

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:It's a harassment policy

[HMA2000]

Thank you so much for saying this. It is good to know I am not the only one that feels this way. People are so very quick to put on blinders and assume that Diebold's CEO and friends are sitting in a darkened room planning on how best to trample the rights of US citizens. The reality of the situation is probably that Diebold is trying its best to score this contract and are making some mistakes along the way. I doubt that the CEO of diebold is aware of the ire he has raised in this (slashdot) particular community and instead is listening to his legal council; who are very predictable in these areas. Has diebold made some big mistakes? Yes, no doubt about it. Is it a conscious effort on Diebold's part to look like total asses? I doubt it. But hey, its a draconian agenda right? What does that even mean?

Re:It's a harassment policy

[arkanes]

Of course nobody is "forcing" the states to buy Diebolds machine - as in all to many cases in IT, the decision to do is being made by people unaware of the problems (and it's not like Diebold reps are going to volunteer them), and who're unfamiliar with the technology, and are otherwise not really qualified to make those kind of decisions. Thats not really related to Diebolds evilness (or lack thereof).

Certainly Diebold (as a company) is incompotent and of shady ethics. I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt and say thats as far as it goes, and that they aren't trying to get rigged systems into place - but just barely. So many of the "features" of Diebold systems have no use I can think of except to rig sytems - in any case, intentional rigging aside, the security and integrity of the voting process was clearly not a priority at Diebold. Further, Diebold employees and reps are aware of that (they can hardly fail to be), but are willing to lie in order to thier paycheck. Depending on your viewpoint, that may or may not qualify as evil.

Re:It's a harassment policy

[Chris Burke]

The reality of the situation is probably that Diebold is trying its best to score this contract and are making some mistakes along the way.

No, the reality of the situation is (note deliberate lack of qualifying "probably") that we don't know.

What we do know is that their machines are insanely insecure, have already failed in real elections, they know about it, they have tried to cover it up instead of fixing it, and have threatened to sue those who did expose these facts.

"Benefit of the doubt" is just that. You doubt the accusations, particularly because they are unproven. However, given the evidence that does exist, I don't know how you can say that they probably aren't true.

Which isn't to say I'm not largely agreeing with you. I'm just saying don't let your skepticism of critics of Diebold turn into a lack of skepticism of Diebold. They could very well be the schemers they are accused of being, no matter how sure you are that they'd never do that.

A draconian agenda would presumeably be an agenda to get draconian laws passed. Thanks to my history schooling and fantasy-novel reading, I still reflexively think of "draconian" as "like evil lizard men" instead of "like the harsh laws passed by Draco of Athens". Funny.

The EFF

[Space cowboy]

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

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".

Go EFF!

[Genghis9]

Nail their sorry butts to the wall
Take a chain with a ball
And bash them on the head
Till their madness is dead

(Next poster please continue)

I'll say it for the millionth time

[Slur]

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

Hey, I'm a fan of the capitalist ethos as much as the next guy, but when it comes to the interests of the populous it's clearly more responsible to choose open source and open standards. Should we really trust Our Data to invisible source code written by anonymous programmers ensconced in a proprietary bubble?

I guess we shouldn't be so surprised that the elite don't have the interests of the populous at heart. Hmm, maybe there's a worm in the Capitalist apple.... It's time the Open Source Community made it clear that we are an essential element of the free market ecosystem and not some fringe element to be vilified and marginalized.

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

Score one for the good guys

[rm007]

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".

Um... I thought Diebold machines _WERE_ used!

[Alphanos]

Quote from story: 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. Either the article submittor or I has totally misunderstood something: I thought that the Diebold machines WERE used in the Bush/Gore election, and that was the source of many of the theories! Doesn't everyone else remember hearing of the memory card that gave Gore approximately -17k votes when added to the tally?

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

[dentar]

"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.

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

[dentar]

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.

Starting a PAC to lobby for sensible copyright law

[Genghis9]

Has anybody done this? Really, a great way to reclaim the system from corporate buyout is to buy it back. Think about it, if 10 million geeks contribute a buck each that could be some serious cash to sway the average money-chasing pol. With the internet it would be really easy to get the word out: Slashdot, BoingBoing etc the birth of the group vigorously and overnight a powerful group could be born. There are plenty of geeks who could contribute to running a site and then it would be a matter of hiring experienced Washington operators to do the slimy work.

It would be like a Howard Dean phenomena, except aiming to restore sanity to digital and non-digital intellectual property laws. First task: repeal the DMCA. Then, get rid of the hideous Sonny Bono legislation. Public opinion would overwhelmingly be behind the efforts too.

What do Slashdotters think. Time to start a revolution right here, right now?

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.

It appears to me

[Karl Cocknozzle]

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?

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.

Are they open source now?

[cluge]

an executive scolded programmers for leaving software files on an Internet site without password protection.

I think we can call this "Open source by accident", or perhaps "Almost Open Source", then again "Effectively Open Source" sounds good as well. I for one would like to thank Diebold for leaving the source code were we can all look at it.

On to a more serious matter - the code SHOULD be open to scrutiny, especially by third party, independant coders. Then again, running on top of a MS OS, that may have a virus or back door scare me. What about a voteing machine that runs from a bootabel CD-Rom? The results are all kept in memory with a line printer and some smart cryptography as a backup/confirmation? It shouldn't be hard, the CD's could be inspected post election to make sure that the voting program code wasn't tampered with (unlike hard drives where I could tamper with the code and no one owuld know it). Seems to me the open source community could do a lot better in short order. PS the username and password for the open source code would be anonymous and myvotcounts@fukudiebold.com

Re:Are they open source now?

[DataCannibal]

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.

Gentoo voting machines?

[Anonymous Coward]

1 standalone CD, all source-code wipes the system clean, builds and installs the system storing votes on secure media, CD's available on-request to those who want them, the one used on the day taken randomly from the box of a few hundred which are given out to the voters.

I can examine the ballet paper, I can watch the ballet box take my slip of paper and see it opened at the counting station, not having some level of proof that it's actually doing what it's supposed to do is a rather poor system.

Re:Devil's Advocate

[arkanes]

Sa I truly, honestly, believe that black people are inferior to whites and therefore I, in my official capacity as a government employee, do my best to ensure that benefits and such go to white people and not black people. Should I be punished for what I believe in?

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.

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?

??

Re:Starting a PAC to lobby for sensible copyright

[herrvinny]

Yeah, sure, $10 million against the multibillion dollar RIAA. $10 million is chump change to them.

Re:Treating the symptom, not the problem

[gormanly]

that, but really isn't the problem that their software was riddled with design and security problems?

That's a pretty common problem with Diebold systems though - they give a very good impression of having no understanding at all of any computer security concepts... pop quiz, would you rather trust them with your votes or your money?

Fuckwits can't even make their ATMs safe from Windoze RPC DCOM worms after M$ put out the patch. Though what we're doing allowing cash machines to run M$OS (with RPC turned on!) is beyond me.

The AP version made me cringe

[ianscot]

Electronic voting firm drops legal case

By RACHEL KONRAD
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- In a major victory for free speech enthusiasts on the Internet, Diebold Inc. has agreed not to sue voting rights advocates who publish leaked documents about the alleged security breaches of electronic voting...

"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.)

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.

Meet the guy who designed the code

[p.zed]

http://www.guylancaster.com_________ Software Engineer, contract 1991 - 2001 Global Election Systems Inc. (now Diebold Election Systems), Vancouver, BC, Canada Development and support of embedded systems firmware and host communications software. Developed a TCP/IP/PPP protocol stack to run under the uC/OS real-time operating system. The stack was based mostly on BSD sources and has been re-released as the uC/IP project on SourceForge (http://ucip.sourceforge.net). The stack is used in the current central count product and has been ported by others into several other commercial embedded systems. Developed secure Internet based protocols for transmitting election information and results. Designed and developed a compiler and interpreter for an embedded report generator system known as AccuBasic. Designed and developed a central count election system in which ballot scanners pass raw images directly to the central server running Progress 4GL. This required a bi-directional variation of the proprietary communications protocol used at the time. System administration, Web development, and technical writing. Developed an intranet Web site which has significantly improved internal communications. Maintained the Linux based email, FTP, and intranet servers for the Vancouver office. Wrote developer documentation and drafted materials for inclusion in user guides.

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.

US Rep Kucinich caused this by linking to memos

[Cryofan]

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....

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.

Re:Devil's Advocate

[Sylver Dragon]

While its fair that a company (Diebold in this case) should be allowed to believe that they are being wronged. If they act on that belief (sending DMCA takedown notices) and are found to be wrong, they should be held responsible. In this case, it would appear to me, that the EFF is trying to ensure that Diebold is held responsible for misusing DMCA takedown notices. Despite all of its flaws there are provisions for companies who misuse the DMCA takedown notices, and that is what the EFF (by proxy) is pursuing them about. Its not about sticking it to some mythincal "man", its about proper punishment for misuse of the legal system. If anything, this is a good thing, a big company is (hopefully) about to get smacked down for abusing the system.