Letter from Diebold to DU withdrawing cease-and-desist orders

[Skinner]

This morning, we received the following letter from the president of Diebold Election Systems informing us that they are withdrawing their cease-and-desist orders which they had previously sent to us. This is a result of a case brought by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (www.eff.org ) against Diebold. My understanding is that there was never actually a ruling in the case, but rather Diebold backed off on their own.

On advice of counsel, Democratic Underground and our ISP had complied with Diebold's first cease-and-desist order. However, we chose to ignore their subsequent correspondence, which we considered to be an unreasonable infringement on our rights and the rights of our members.

We were not a party to the Electronic Frontier Foundation lawsuit, however we did discuss our situation with them to help them out.

I wish to thank our ISP, who were extremely supportive of Democratic Underground and stood by us even when Diebold was sending them threatening letters as well.

David Allen (Skinner)
DU Admin

NOTE: Bolded statements in letter were bolded by Diebold.

---

From: XXXXXX
To: '[e-mail]'
Sent: Wednesday, December 03, 2003 5:25 PM
Subject: DMCA Notification Withdrawal






Diebold Election Systems, Inc.
1611 Wilmeth Road
McKinnney, TX 75069
972 XXX-XXXX
fax 972 XXX-XXXX
www.dieboldes.com

December 3, 2003

Dear Elad, Skinner and Earl G:

As President of Diebold Election Systems, Inc., I wish to inform you that our company is withdrawing the notification recently issued under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998. Diebold has decided not to sue ISPs or their subscribers now or in the future for copyright infringement for the non-commercial use of the materials posted to date, even though the uses may not qualify as "fair use" under the law.

From the outset, I want to emphasize that Diebold's overarching goal is to assist voters in exercising their most fundamental constitutional right: the right to vote. We believe that our touch screen and other electronic voting technologies are a major leap forward in helping more Americans vote with increased accuracy and accessibility. Touch screen technology eliminates "overvoting" and significantly reduces "undervoting." In addition, our touch screen technology offers multi-lingual ballot capability and enables the visually impaired to vote without assistance for the first time in their lives.

We recognize that how America votes is a matter of intense public interest, as it should be, and we support the electorate's right to participate in an open and robust debate on that topic. I want to assure you that my company's use of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in response to the theft of internal information and development materials does not diminish our commitment to the constitutional values of our country.

No company-whether an ISP, a software developer, or any type of company-wants its internal conversations openly broadcast, and I am sure your internal business correspondence includes information involving the unique capabilities and insights that you feel are important to the successful operation of your company. The correspondence between individuals within our company often contains information concerning unique software, features and capabilities that provide Diebold with a potential advantage in a competitive marketplace. This type of information constitutes Diebold's work product and important intellectual property.

With that background, here is what led to the current situation. In January of this year, some software and other material was inadvertently exposed through a website of a predecessor company. In March, a hacker broke into one of our servers and stole a considerable quantity of our documents including a significant archive of information which is proprietary to Diebold. As you can imagine, the issue for Diebold, as for any other company in a similar circumstance, was what to do about the theft of its property in which it had a copyright interest, especially given the ease and quickness with which the stolen material could and did spread around the Internet.

In order to protect its intellectual property rights, Diebold chose to notify ISPs, as expressly permitted by the DMCA, that stolen material, in which Diebold has a copyright interest, was being hosted on or linked to websites under the ISP's control. Although we believe our legal position was and continues to be correct, we recognize that our DMCA efforts have become the story, and may be influencing the debate on how America's votes can be recorded and tallied most accurately.

To help refocus the public debate on that central issue, and recognizing that a considerable amount of the stolen email archive is now widely available on the Internet, Diebold has decided not to sue ISPs or their subscribers for copyright infringement for the non-commercial use of the materials. We are also withdrawing the DMCA notifications previously sent to you and other ISPs.

In taking this action, we are underscoring Diebold's commitment not only to provide the best voting systems in America, but to contribute to a robust public debate on how to record and tally the vote most accurately and efficiently. We welcome your input and suggestions concerning how we as citizens can further enhance the election process. Please let me know if you have any questions or comments concerning our position.

Sincerely,

Robert J. Urosevich
President

[Hawkeye-X]

1. Diebold has recently withdrew the lawsuits

so BBV can continue here. Screw Diebold. Good job, David! Remind me to send a little bit more $$ on my next contribution to DU.

Hawkeye-X

[bearfartinthewoods]

43. it may be time for an apology to EEF for some of the badmouthing

they received her.

on edit...not talking about you Hawkeye. just an 'in general' comment.

[SaddenedDem]

2. I noticed you used the plural "orders"

Had DU received more than one cease and desist?

Thanks for your courage in standing up to the corporate monsters.

[lysergik]

3. A big thanks to DU.

A thank you to DU, its staff and ISP for holding strong and fighting for rights which were unfairly being infringed upon by Diebold who was attempting to keep wraps on their highly discussed voting systems. If only more people would stand-up to big companies more often.

Thanks

[Don_G]

4. Interesting

The DCMA expressely permitted Diebold to harrass and threaten ISP's and Web Administrators for posting links to the info.

Thanks for sharing the letter with us.

[seemslikeadream]

5. Mr. Urosevich

How is "One God One Vote, Biblical Law Trumps Civil Law" Howard Ahmanson taking the news?

[HFishbine]

6. They still don't get it

"No company-whether an ISP, a software developer, or any type of company-wants its internal conversations openly broadcast..."

No, dumb shits, it doesn't matter what your company wants. If you want to make money by handling a public trust, then yes indeed, every single aspect of your operations that have to do with American elections should be openly broadcast. The difference between your company and others, is that you have assumed a operational role in the democratic process. That does not give you ownership of that process, or any part of it. It belongs to the American people.

[knowledgeispower]

13. Well said

They should have nothing to hide...but obviously they do.

[trogdor]

28. THANK YOU!

That's why somebody smart needs to start a consortium kinda like Mozilla.org that develops OPEN SOURCE voting software. The source code would be public domain (no DMCA issues), with volunteers doing the software development under the supervision of a pan-partisan (or as close as we can get) committee that approves changes.

None of the advantages Diebold named in the letter in support of their system are exclusive to touch-screen systems in general. In fact, I believe an ordinary PC running Windows (or Linux, but it's easier to find poll workers who are familiar with Windows) would do just fine. The results could be saved to CD-R for permanent archiving. No, it ain't paper, but it is permanent, and it's at least as good as the big grey monsters we use in New York State. One voter, one file. I figure any polling district in the USA could get by on a single CD.

My beef with Diebold? There is no reason a for-profit should be trusted with our democracy. Period. That goes for the big grey monsters, too.

[Guaranteed]

32. That's right.

Voting is not a corporate matter.

[BeFree]

7. "...contribute to a robust debate...""

Suggestion: Put a Diebold rep on DU and have him or her answer our questions. Now that would be robust! Bring 'em on!

[sistersofmercy]

8. Skinner I have an incrediblely stupid question.

Could you please explain? Isn't this good in one way but sort of a conniving appeasement in another to quiet their largest group of critics?

[Terwilliger]

9. this is a big public bullseye that says "We didn't want people to know!"

I think it's a big-time indictment of Diebold.

[sistersofmercy]

11. OK!

[sistersofmercy]

12. Oh BTW,

Thanks!

[Skinner]

15. It is good for DU.

We can discuss the issues without fear of harrassment by Diebold and their lawyers.

They were getting a lot of bad press because of these cease-and-desist letters. I think that that by doing this, Diebold hopes that the computer-voting issue will go away. Unfortunately, they might be right. That would be a very bad thing.

[sistersofmercy]

17. Ok Thanks!

[jumptheshadow]

19. I hope it doesn't go away

There were several letters in the Times in response to Krugman's column. A lot of people persevered to bring this to the public's attention. I think this may be catching on.

[Myra]

40. We'll try to make sure the issue doesn't go away Skinner.

But congrats on the letter.
It's one step...

[yowzayowzayowza]

10. Not off the hook yet. The EFF still...

has Liebolds number. Love to watch 'em squirm.

http://www.salon.com/tech/wire/2003/12/01/diebold/index...

Seltzer said free speech advocates should hail Diebold's promise not to sue, but she warned that numerous individuals have already removed the offending material from Web sites. EFF plans to continue with its case against Diebold, arguing under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that Diebold must pay damages for intimidating Internet service providers. The hearing is scheduled for Feb. 9.

[evil_orange_cat]

14. Repubilican dorks...

I hope you DU admins told Diebold to suck it! If you need someone to be obnoxious towards Republican pudwhacks for you, I'm offering my services.

[Wapsie B]

16. Well now..............

"any type of company-wants its internal conversations openly broadcast."

Wrongo, moosebreath. Any company that deals with something as sacred to us as a people as counting the votes should have to reveal everything short of showing a log book as to when every employee went to the bathroom. Everything; every line of code, down to what they clean their toilets with.

[kentuck]

18. I wonder what brought this on ???

I know the issue has been getting a lot of publicity, Bev Harris et al.?? Any idea?

[Skinner]

23. Diebold got sued by the Electronic Frontier Foundation

And apparently they saw the writing on the wall.

[kentuck]

30. Thanks Skinner.

I guess I had not been following this BBV as close as I perhaps should have...I assume that much of the information was in those threads?

[wtmusic]

20. The genie is out of the bottle

With Kucinich hammering Diebold in Congress, it *sorta* looks bad to have Diebold suing people who expose their ineptitude.

Thanks go to Skinner and Bev Harris, who wouldn't let it die.

[Skinner]

22. I can't really take credit here.

I just run the message board.

[Generic Other]

25. Yeah, but you didn't back down, sell out or compromise!

Good for you Skinner. Ya hit Goliath right between the eyes!

[Capn Sunshine]

36. So that's what they call herding cats these days

---Clark Sucks!
----No Dean sucks!
---you're a freeper!
-----screw you jack! I have 100,000 posts so you're dirt!
----communism! It does a body good!

[dpbrown]

21. THANK YOU DENNIS KUCINICH!

Putting the Diebold memos up on your House website broke Diebold's back.

Now let's take back the rest of our democracy from these crooks.

[redqueen]

48. From me as well

Thanks to DK for helping to push Diebold on this issue.

[greyl]

24. kick

[goobergunch]

26. kick

[ShaneGR]

27. Interesting problem for them

Their voting system is supposed to be secure but their host servers are not? I'm amazed the President of Diebold would even talk about the server stuff.

[JackRiddler]

29. Funny!

Was that really addressed to "Dear Elad, Skinner and Earl G"?

If so, at least the Culture Wars are going well...

[Skinner]

34. It;s true. The letter was addressed to Elad, Skinner and Earl G.

If they had asked us for our real names, I would have been happy to provide them. But I guess they never felt it was necessary.

[frank frankly]

31. kick

[rasputin1952]

33. I am properly amused...

now, if they only get the "paper trail" problem fixed, we can all sleep a little better.

[Elidor]

35. I see someone has explained to Mr. Urosevich

That like a smart mafiosi, a voting-machine executive should avoid publicity. What a tool. We have them at our mercy, and we hardly seem to know it yet. Whenever someone levels a charge at Diebold, their response only increases their visibility. They can't win.

[Andy_Stephenson]

39. Mr. Urosevich

Told me I was gonna get a visit if I didn't back off. I wonder if he'll be changing his tune now?

[Elidor]

46. What kind of visit?

Law enforcement? Or brownshirts?

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

37. Kudos to Bev and all the BBV'ers for this victory

This thread demonstrates the synergism of DU.

Did you ever think this movement would be an outcome when you guys got into this site, Skinner?

[RevolutionStartsNow]

38. Saw a Diebold van on the road the other day

Never would have known who they were without the activists on this forum.

[creativelcro]

47. They do lots of ATM and security-related work...

Yeah, I'll have Diebold make my safe...

[radfringe]

41. has anyone pointed out to Diebold

- if a hacker can break into their e-mail files that this raises questions as to the level of security/accuracy of the black boxes?

[althecat]

42. Thanks Skinner...

I never realised you were getting C&Ds too, though it would have been odd if they had missed you out. So thankyou for standing by us all... and thanks to your ISP as well. As Bev pointed out in her book, none of this would have been possible without DU.

Kia Kaha
Alastair
Scoop.co.nz

[RedEagle]

44. Another thank you to DU

DU, providing the nation's grass roots meeting room for voting integrity.

My profound gratitude.

(And yes, I'll contribute when I get time to catch my breath!)

[CivilRightsNow]

45. Wow..

Du is awesome. Congrats on the victory of truth.