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Diebold Strategic Retreat in E-Voting Case
Posted by Badri Natarajan on Wednesday, November 26 @ 21:05:35 EST Copyright

LawMeme has been following the Diebold E-Voting case (the earlier article which provides a good overview of the situation is here) and recently, the EFF announced the latest twist to the story.

In what appears to be a strategic retreat, in the face of a potential PR disaster, not to mention rather shaky legal grounds (cease and desist letters to people who LINK to allegedly infringing material? Jeez.), Diebold on Monday told the court that it is

"withdrawing more than a dozen legal threats sent to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) for hosting users who publish or link to certain Diebold corporate documents that indicate flaws in Diebold voting machines and irregularities with certifying the systems for actual elections. Diebold also told the court that it would issue no additional cease-and-desist notices concerning these corporate documents."

As a result, the Judge in the ongoing litigation has scheduled a case management conference for December 1, with all parties present, presumably to decide what happens to the case, now that Diebold has basically given in to the major demands of the plaintiffs in the case. (Basically the plaintiffs, represented by EFF and Stanford Law School's CIS, asked that Diebold be ordered to stop sending cease and desist letters to everyone in sight as that amounted to abuse of copyright law.)

Naturally, it would be better for the plaintiffs if the case continued since a clear order by a court is a much better result than a grudging "We didn't do nothing wrong" acquiescence by Diebold.

So, tune in on December 1 for the next chapter in the Diebold saga..

 
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Re: Diebold Strategic Retreat in E-Voting Case (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Monday, December 01 @ 11:44:18 EST
cease and desist letters to people who LINK to allegedly infringing material? Jeez.


Jeez, indeed, for most people with common sense, but please keep in mind the DeCSS decision against 2600 magazine. Links to sites offering DeCSS code were deemed to be equivalent to offering the DeCSS code directly.

Thank our good friends in the Senate and the House of Misrepresetatives for the DMCA, which not only enables such fear-mongering, but practically demands it.

-paul


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