[Seth-Trips] OPG v. Diebold preliminary injunction hearing, San Jose, Monday

[Seth David Schoen]

Electronic Frontier Foundation Media Release

For Immediate Release: Friday, November 14, 2003


Contact:

Wendy Seltzer
  Staff Attorney
  Electronic Frontier Foundation
  wendy at eff.org
  +1 415 436-9333 x125 (office), +1 914 374-0613 (cell)

Cindy Cohn
  Legal Director
  Electronic Frontier Foundation
  cindy at eff.org
  +1 415 436-9333 x108 (office), +1 415 307-2148 (cell)

David Weekly
  Colocation Director
  Online Policy Group
  david at onlinepolicy.org
  +1 415 336-2617 (cell)


Court Hearing on Electronic Voting Company's Threats Against Critics

Diebold Suppressing Evidence of Voting Machine Flaws

San Jose, CA - Two student activists and an Internet Service
Provider (ISP) will ask a federal district court judge on
Monday to stop the ongoing legal harassment of them and
others in a case involving disclosure of flaws in electronic
voting machines. The nonprofit ISP Online Policy Group (OPG)
and two Swarthmore college students seek to prevent
electronic voting machine manufacturer Diebold Systems,
Inc., from issuing further legal threats against ISPs in an
attempt to squelch publication of the embarrassing
information.

Date: Monday, November 17, 2003

Time: 9:00am PST (press conference in front of courthouse
after hearing)

Location: Federal Courthouse, 280 South 1st Street, San
Jose, CA 95113 (near W. San Carlos St.)

Courtroom: Judge Jeremy Fogel, Courtroom 3, 5th Floor

Case: Online Policy Group v. Diebold (Case Number C-03-04913
JF)

Diebold has threatened a dozen or more ISPs who host
websites that publish or link to an email archive that
includes emails from Diebold staff confirming flaws in
Diebold voting machines and difficulties certifying the
systems for actual elections.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the Center for
Internet and Society Cyberlaw Clinic at Stanford Law School
are providing legal representation to the ISP OPG and two
Swarthmore students, Nelson Pavlosky and Luke Smith, in this
important case to prevent abusive copyright claims from
silencing public debate about voting, the very foundation of
our democratic process.

"We are pleased that the court has recognized the urgency of
our case against Diebold with an expedited schedule," said
EFF Staff Attorney Wendy Seltzer. "Diebold must not be
permitted to use unfounded copyright claims to stifle public
debate over the accuracy of electronic voting machines."

Diebold threatened not only the ISPs of direct publishers of
the corporate documents, but also the ISPs of those who
merely publish links to the documents. The ISP OPG refused
to comply with Diebold's demand that it prohibit Independent
Media Network (IndyMedia) from linking to Diebold documents.

"As an ISP committed to free speech, we are affirming our
users' right to link to information that's critical to the
debate on the reliability of electronic voting machines,"
said OPG's Colocation Director David Weekly. "The court now
has the opportunity to defend free speech by helping protect
small publishers and ISPs from frivolous legal threats by
large corporations."

"Instead of paying lawyers to threaten its critics, Diebold
should invest in creating electronic voting machines that
include voter-verified paper ballots and other security
protections," said EFF Legal Director Cindy Cohn.

For this advisory:
http://www.eff.org/Legal/ISP_liability/OPG_v_Diebold/20031114_eff_pr.php

Online Policy Group v. Diebold case archive:
http://www.eff.org/Legal/ISP_liability/OPG_v_Diebold/

Cease-and-desist letter Diebold sent to OPG:
http://www.eff.org/Legal/ISP_liability/cease_desist_letter.php

IndyMedia Web page subject to Diebold cease-and-desist
letter:
http://www.indybay.org/news/2003/09/1649419_comment.php

Security researchers discover huge flaws in e-voting system:
http://www.eff.org/Activism/E-voting/20030723_eff_pr.php

Link to Chilling Effects on DMCA safe harbor provisions:
http://www.chillingeffects.org/dmca512/

Media coverage of Diebold threats:
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,60927,00.html and
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/7117340.htm


About EFF:

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the leading civil
liberties organization working to protect rights in the
digital world. Founded in 1990, EFF actively encourages and
challenges industry and government to support free
expression and privacy online. EFF is a member-supported
organization and maintains one of the most linked-to
websites in the world at
http://www.eff.org/


About Center for Internet and Society Cyberlaw Clinic at
Stanford Law School:

The Center for Internet and Society (CIS) is a public
interest technology law and policy program at Stanford Law
School and a part of Law, Science and Technology Program at
Stanford Law School. The CIS brings together scholars,
academics, legislators, students, programmers, security
researchers, and scientists to study the interaction of new
technologies and the law and to examine how the synergy
between the two can either promote or harm public goods like
free speech, privacy, public commons, diversity, and
scientific inquiry. The CIS Cyberlaw Clinic gives Stanford
Law School students an opportunity to work with clients on
cases and legal projects that involve questions of
technology, law and the public interest.


About OPG:

The Online Policy Group (OPG) is a nonprofit organization
dedicated to online policy research, outreach, and action on
issues such as access, privacy, the digital divide, and
digital defamation. The organization fulfills its motto of
"One Internet With Equal Access for All" through programs
such as donation-based email, email list hosting, website
hosting, domain registrations, colocation services,
technical consulting, educational training, and refurbished
computer donations. The California Community Colocation
Project (CCCP) and QueerNet are OPG projects. OPG focuses on
Internet participants' civil liberties and human rights,
like access, privacy, safety, and serving schools,
libraries, disabled, elderly, youth, women, and sexual,
gender, and ethnic minorities. Find out more at
http://www.onlinepolicy.org/


About IndyMedia:

IndyMedia is an international network working to build a
decentralized, non-commercial media infrastructure to
counter an increasingly consolidated corporate media.
IndyMedia collectives have spread rapidly since the WTO
protests in Seattle 1999, with IMC groups now working
throughout North & South America, the Middle East, Europe,
Africa, Asia and Oceania, accessible through
http://www.indymedia.org/

                           -end-

-- 
Seth David Schoen <schoen at loyalty.org> | Very frankly, I am opposed to people
     http://www.loyalty.org/~schoen/   | being programmed by others.
     http://vitanuova.loyalty.org/     |     -- Fred Rogers (1928-2003),
                                       |        464 U.S. 417, 445 (1984)