EFF: Online Policy Group v. Diebold, Inc.

EFF: Online Policy Group v. Diebold, Inc.

Online Policy Group v. Diebold, Inc.

Diebold, Inc., manufacturer of electronic voting machines, has been sending out many cease-and-desist letters to Internet Service Providers (ISPs), after internal documents indicating flaws in their systems were published on the Internet. The company cited copyright violations under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and demanded that the documents be taken down.

Now EFF and the Center for Internet and Society Cyberlaw Clinic at Stanford Law School are fighting back, seeking a court order on behalf of nonprofit ISP Online Policy Group (OPG) and two Swarthmore College students to prevent Diebold’s abusive copyright claims from silencing public debate about voting, the very foundation of our democratic process.

“Diebold’s blanket cease-and-desist notices are a blatant abuse of copyright law,” said EFF Staff Attorney Wendy Seltzer. “Publication of the Diebold documents is clear fair use because of their direct relevance to the debate over the accuracy of electronic voting machines.”

The documents include email messages written by Diebold employees describing security flaws in the systems, as well as email discussions about how to resolve, or in some cases, obfuscate those problems.

The DMCA contains a "safe harbor" provision as an incentive for ISPs to take down user-posted content when they receive cease-and-desist letters such as the ones sent by Diebold. By removing the content, or forcing the user to do so, an ISP can take itself out of the middle of any copyright claim. As a result, few ISPs have tested whether they would face liability for such user activity in a court of law.