From the Inquirer, they seem to be keeping on top of this issue.

From the Inquirer, they seem to be keeping on top of this issue.

Diebold 'abused copyright laws' to scupper fee speech:

"VOTING MACHINE MAKER, Diebold, faces allegations from the Online Policy Group that it has sought to use copyright laws in an attempt to scupper free speech.

The adversaries will come face to face in court on February 9, following a row over the publication of a selection of the company’s internal emails online. The mails highlighted certain flaws in the company's vote-counting systems and procedures that the Online Policy Group and a non-profit ISP along with two students from Swarthmore college maintain it was in the public interest to bring to light.

The OPG claims that Diebold abused copyright law in threatening the Internet connections of those who published or linked to a corporate email archive indicating flaws in Diebold's voting machines and irregularities with certifying them for actual elections.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has taken up the case on behalf of the OPG and the students. Its legal director, Cindy Cohn, claimed Diebold had used 'phony' copyright claims to silence public debate about voting. 'Copyright law must not become a tool of censorship,' she said.

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."