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.
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)
This is where the serious fun begins.
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....
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 ...
... it's all about getting New Hampshire I guess" as reported by out correspondend who spoke to him on IRC.
Mittnick responded: "Erm
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!
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".
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.
-- thinkyhead software and media
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
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?
Alphanos
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?
"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.
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.
Free Speech, Free Software, Free Culture
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?
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
"Science is about ego as much as it is about discovery and truth " - I said it, so sue me.
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.
"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.
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.
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