The Chronicle reports that Three More Colleges Receive Cease-and-Desist Letters From Maker of Voting Machines. Diebold contends that students have put stolen, copyrighted internal memos on college-hosted websites, in violation of the Digital Milleneum Copyright Act, others allege that publication is "fair use," because they evidence Diebold knowledge of defects in its electronic voting machine technology used in many states. A student-run Swarthmore website tracks the controversy over the publication of the memos and a "civil disobedience" response. (Read more ... )
An AP story carried at SiliconValley.com reports that the materials were first put online in August, after a hacker took them from a Diebold website, but only became general knowledge after Diebold threatened legal action against the colleges hosting the student sites.
Ernest Miller is also following the controvery and commenting in his "The Importance of " blog. He noted that the civil disobedience moves (and the controversial files) have now migrated onto the P2P networks.
LawMeme, at Yale Law, has picked up the story as well.
Open Questions:
These may not be the Pentagon Papers, but is there a broader-than-usual "fair use" exception for revealing evidence of fraud or misrepresentation concerning a system of material importance to the processes of government?
Could a private party successfully maintain a civil copyright infringement action against a whistle-blower who took documents to law enforcement or the Washington Post?
What about revealing concealed (and copyrighted) evidence of terrorist acts? Is that fair use?
Diebold may be trying to make some law here, or just clumsily trying to shoot its way out of an embarrassment. Either way, it could be seen as a rather self-destructive tactic, once the story becomes big enough that state and federal authorities are forced to investigate.
The situation also beautifully illustrates the defense mechanisms of a self-organized network with access to global communications systems.
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Posted by dougsimpson at October 31, 2003 08:58 AM | TrackBack