:: NEWS COCKTAIL aka BlahBlahBlog ::
"Everything is being compressed into tiny tablets. You take a little pill of news every day - 23 minutes - and that's supposed to be enough." -Walter Cronkite, RE TV news. The Web has changed that for many, however, and here is an extra dose for your daily news cocktail. This prescription tends to include surveillance and now war-related links, along with the occasional pop culture junk and whatever else seizes my attention as I scan online news sites.:: 11.04.2003 ::
:: Diebold updates ::
From Wired News:
Calif. Halts E-Vote Certification
The discovery that uncertified software may have been used in electronic voting machines has prompted California officials to delay plans to approve new machines made by Diebold Election Systems. Kim Zetter reports from Sacramento, California.
From CNET News.com:
Students buck DMCA threat
By Declan McCullagh
When Diebold Election Systems learned that its internal e-mail correspondence had popped up on the Web, it used a common legal tactic: sending cease-and-desist letters to Webmasters.
But in the months since the North Canton, Ohio-based company began trying to rid the Internet of those copyrighted files, it has arrived at a very unusual impasse. Far from vanishing, the files have appeared on more than 50 Web sites, run mostly by students who claim Diebold has a suspiciously cozy relationship with the Republican Party and that the e-mail conversations demonstrate its election software is flawed and should not be trusted.
On Tuesday, Diebold will find itself on the defensive in court as well. The Electronic Frontier Foundation and Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society are planning to file a lawsuit asking for a temporary restraining order that would effectively halt Diebold's campaign against the loosely organized network of mirror sites. A hearing could be held as early as Tuesday in federal district court in San Francisco.
EFF attorneys say the case is the first time that someone who has received a "notice and takedown" request--one of the many Diebold made, repeatedly invoking the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)--has attempted such a pre-emptive strike before being sued.
"We're saying that the hosting of the documents is fair use" and therefore legal, said Wendy Seltzer, an EFF staff attorney. "They're very thinly protected by copyright in the first place and being posted as part of a political debate."
Diebold did not respond on Monday to a request for comment.
From Slashdot:
CNN Reports on Diebold
An Anonymous Reader writes "CNN has finally picked up the story about concerns about Diebold voting machines. It's about time this made it into the mainstream media." If you're interested, here are a couple of related stories.
From InternetNews.com:
EFF Looks To Block Diebold Threats
By Jim Wagner
The ISP Online Policy Group (IOPG) will find out later today whether a San Francisco judge will approve its restraining order against Diebold Inc., which has been sending the non-profit company cease-and-desist orders over publication of vulnerabilities in Diebold e-voting machines.
The e-voting machine flaws, which allow hackers to change vote tallies through Microsoft Access, have been published on several Web sites; Diebold has sent cease-and-resist orders to the ISPs hosting these Web pages, as well as ISPs who host Web sites that provide a link to the e-voting machine weaknesses.
The ruling will be the first test for ISPs who refuse to comply with the "safe harbor" measures provided in the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The provision in the Act frees ISPs of liability over its customers publishing copyrighted material if they take down the site within 10 days of getting a cease-and-desist order from copyright holders.
posted by me
:: 11:04:00 AM [+] ::
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