Electronic Frontier Foundation is supporting and publicizing a lawsuit seeking to quash Diebold's notices to ISPs under the DMCA "safe harbor" clauses. EFF: Online Policy Group v. Diebold, Inc. EFF is hosting copies of the parties' pleadings and briefs at its site. Diebold had served DMCA notices on several ISPs (including OPG and Swarthmore College) that were hosting sites containing copies of Diebold emails and other records in which Diebold claims copyright. Swarthmore took down the sites in question, OPG decided to counterattack. OPG's complaint seeks injunctive relief alleging, among other things, copyright abuse. It alleges that the publication of Diebold's material is protected free speech on a matter of public interest: allegations of defects in electronic election systems made by Diebold and widely used in elections in the United States. A hearing was scheduled for 11/17.
Posted by dougsimpson at November 18, 2003 07:25 AM | TrackBackDistrict Court Judge Fogel heard arguments for over an hour on Monday, according to PC World's story at http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,113492,00.asp to which http://beSpacific.com points us. The plaintiffs are encouraged by the number and nature of the questions asked by Judge Fogel, according to PC World, which reports that he asked, "Is there any way to go through ... and decide what's fair use and what is proprietary? * * * Can we distinguish the material that addresses the public question about the systems' reliability?"
A ruling is expected in a few weeks.
Posted by: Doug Simpson at November 19, 2003 05:32 PM