BBV - The Swarthmore Dean Is Caving To Diebold

[JohnGideon]

The Swarthmore Campus effort lead by SDCDC and Why War? has been dealt a setback thanks to the lack of support from Dean Bob Gross.

Swarthmore College, unfortunately, is not willing to take a strong stand against Diebold, and is systematically disabling the network access of any student who hosts the files. “We can’t get out in front in this fight against Diebold,” Gross said during the meeting with over fifty students, staff, and faculty. Although Why War? accepts this position as final, we had hoped that an institution once praised for allegiance to the pursuit of truth would have taken a more forceful stance. Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the college would be under no liability after informing a student that s/he should not be hosting the file. Yet Swarthmore is choosing to act counter to the spirit of both its traditions and rules, the latter of which requires that students be given three days to take down work challenged as an infringement of copyright. There is no provision under either the DMCA or Swarthmore’s own rules to allow for shutting down a student’s network access, in particular when no challenge has been made against that specific student. Why War? is deeply distressed by Swarthmore's inability, or unwillingness, to understand that the magnitude of this situation: a fair presidential election!
www.blackboxvoting.com

We all need to send Dean Gross an email and nicely, politely, let him know that we support the SDCDC. [e-mail]

[Andy_Stephenson]

1. This is why I have decided to do this

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=575617&mesg_id=575617

[Kelvin Mace]

16. Congratulations!

On your decision to run. Wish I could vote for you. You know you have Bev's vote. <G>

David Allen
Publisher, CEO, Janitor
Plan Nine Publishing

[creativelcro]

2. “We can’t get out in front in this fight against Diebold,”

What is that supposed to mean ? Harvard could do it, resource-wise, I mean win a legal battle with Diebold... But with Larry Summers as Harvard prez (= gimme money, I'll do anything), the chance of something like that is exactly zero. -C

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[creativelcro]

5. you're saying that

universities will not do anything about it because they are part of the elite ? Quite possible... At the highest levels I've seen an obvious anti-risk policy at most universities. Hey, these days they are corporations, essentially, with few exceptions... -C

[bpilgrim]

7. the DEAN

is part of the establishment and certainly risk adverse.

why was my post deleted? :shrug:

peace

[Rooktoven]

4. Slashdot had an article about this yesterday---

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/10/22/0142252&mode=nested&tid=103&tid=126&tid=153&tid=172&tid=99

If you read through, you can find some people who were offering up mirrors of the memos (lists.tgz) after the site got slashdotted.

I'll post them on my own (cable-powered) site in a few days...

[creativelcro]

6. Hello fellow penguin...

:) Thanx for the link.

[bpilgrim]

8. GlobalFreePress.com has the story as well

http://new.GlobalFreePress.com/search.cgi

psst... pass the word ;->

peace

[creativelcro]

9. Awesome story

:)

" http://new.GlobalFreePress.com/search.cgi

psst... pass the word ;->

peace
"

[gristy]

10. Email sent

If not Swarthmore, then somewhere else. Surely...

[ConsAreLiars]

11. Shilling For Da Man!

Oh my, what a good move for OUR side.

Swarthmore students have a long history of fighting for what is right. Plus a wide wide network of affiliations with justice groups of all sorts. Add the factor that the DMCA aspect is being used to suppress information vital to democracy as well as cost-priced music exchange, and I can see BBV being understood and acted against by a much wider range of political forces. He earns a note of appreciation for fanning the flames this way.

[smallprint]

12. I went to Swarthmore

and I spent more time than I would have liked in Bob Gross's office. Boy did he pick the wrong horse on this one. He's going to be hearing it for a while.

Go Swatties!!!!!

[enough]

13. Please contact Dean Gross and Philadelphia Inquirer

This is a great opportunity to get the issue out into the regular press. The Inquirer follows anything newsworthy at the College.

As an alum and parent of an alum, I'm surprised and appalled that Swarthmore is taking this stance. The school has been pretty stalwart on a lot of issues over the decades. I guess the endowment has gotten so big and sleek and beautiful that they're all afraid to endanger the infinite growth of the money.

It's a very small place and every e-mail will be noticed.

[myka]

14. more info

to stay updated about this issue go here:
http://www.why-war.com/features/2003/10/diebold.html

If you are a swat alum please send emails to the phoenix:
[e-mail]

micah
why-war.com

[althecat]

19. Micah..... Wow!!! (HUGE BIG UPS!!!)

Welcome to DU Micah, I think you will find the natives friendly.

I am delighted to be able to thank you in person (virtually anyway) here in DU, which in truth is the home of this effort.

You guys at Swarthmore and Why-War have done a fantastic job. Your efforts will go down in the history books on this.... and they have hugely assisted the efforts of those inquiring into this.

Kia Kaha
(Maori = Stand Tall)

Alastair
Scoop Media
NZ

[JohnGideon]

21. I Add My Thanks to You All, Micah

And Kia Ora to my Kiwi Friend

[JohnGideon]

15. Kick Because It Needs It n/t

[RedEagle]

17. Wrote my letter to the Dean already

Gee, don't suppose he's remembering Lynn Cheney's drive, aided and abetted by Lieberman, to censor free thinking on campus, do you?

[RedEagle]

18. Common Dem's

Support these students.

Goodness knows the forces of the far right are on campus trying to influence young minds.

[creativelcro]

20. Stop it RedEagle...

you are scaring me... :scared:

[RedEagle]

22. Don't Mean to...

Sorry Creativelcro.

How else to tell people this is serious?

I'm not very good at using words that dance around the issue.

Go to: http://www.vote.wa.gov/outreach/ and read some of the lesson plans for teachers and students in Washington State. This isn't a civics education- it's Intro to E-voting and Touch Screens.

Compare to educational program at California's SOS site:
http://www.ss.ca.gov/elections/Outreach/civics/home.htm

I think the CA site is what you'd expect a civics minded course to be like. Not a PR campaign of innuendo and word play.

And look at the "...burn in hell" Dante quote on the WA site.

What gives there? Why not one of the many quotes from Jefferson or even Franklin? What's up with this?