Electronic voting firm drops legal case

[Kelvin Mace]

<a href="http://salon.com/tech/wire/2003/12/01/diebold/index.html">AP story at Salon.com</a>

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.

A Diebold spokesman promised in a conference call Monday with U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel and attorneys from the Electronic Frontier Foundation that it would not sue dozens of students, computer scientists and ISP operators who received cease-and-desist letters from August to October.

Diebold also promised not to file lawsuits against two Swarthmore College students and a San Francisco-based Internet service provider for copyright infringement, according to a motion that company attorneys filed Nov. 24 in San Jose's federal court.

Diebold did not disclose specifics on why it had dropped its legal case, but the decision is a major reversal of the company's previous strategy. North Canton, Ohio-based Diebold, which controls more than 50,000 touch-screen voting machines nationwide, had threatened legal action against dozens of individuals who refused to remove links to its stolen data.

*snip*

Major victory for the forces of good. <g> Though I would still have loved to have seen them slapped down in court.

David Allen
Publisher, CEO, Janitor
Plan Nine Publishing
http://www.plan9.org

[Greyskye]

1. Sweet!

Most Excellent News!

[TacticalPeek]

2. I love the smell of burnt idle threat toast in the morning.

"We're trying to hammer home that you can't go around making idle threats that aren't backed up by the law." - EFF staff attorney Wendy Seltzer

"EFF plans to continue with its case against Diebold, arguing under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that Diebold must pay damages for intimidating Internet service providers. The hearing is scheduled for Feb. 9."

Fannnntastic!

:toast:

[9215]

3. Fantastic is right

WOW. Now EFF is going after Diebold!!

:toast: :bounce:

[Kelvin Mace]

4. This is a wonderful developement

Diebold needs to be made an example of what happens to people who abuse the law.

I bet the RIAA is just thrilled with Diebold for setting the DMCA up to be overturned.

David Allen
Publisher, CEO, Janitor
Plan Nine Publishing
http://www.plan9.org

[KittyWampus]

5. They Will Become More Dangerous Now

"Diebold did not disclose specifics on why it had dropped its legal case, but the decision is a major reversal of the
company's previous strategy."

They will be doing much more behind the scenes....

[ZenLefty]

6. Duplicate

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=247892

ZenLefty
DU Moderator