Delivered-To: dfarber+@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Sat, 01 Nov 2003 09:03:08 -0800 (PST)
From: Joseph Lorenzo Hall <jhall@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Swarthmore press release on Diebold...
To: Declan McCullagh <declan@xxxxxxxx>, Dave Farber <dave@xxxxxxxxxx>
I don't know if you have seen this. I applaud Swarthmore's stance and
hope to see more institutions stand up to Diebold:
http://www.swarthmore.edu/news/releases/03/diebold.html
For Immediate Release: October 31, 2003
Contact: Tom Krattenmaker
610-328-8534
tkratte1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.swarthmore.edu/news/
Swarthmore Administration Taking Steps To Support Student Action in
Diebold Matter
SWARTHMORE, Pa. -- The Swarthmore College administration is taking
steps to support student activists who are challenging efforts by
Diebold, Inc., to suppress the circulation of memos calling attention
to problems with the company's electronic voting machines.
In keeping with the College's commitment to educate its students for
socially responsible citizenship, it is challenging Diebold to justify
its claim of copyright infringement and is helping students develop
legal strategies to address the ethical and moral concerns motivating
their attention to the Diebold voting machines.
Acting on legal counsel, the Swarthmore administration has advised
students on the process for filing under the copyright law a
"counter-notification" against Diebold's take-down demand. In
addition, the administration has alerted students that it is
defensible on fair-use and free-speech grounds to use their web sites
to describe the content of the memos they have seen and their
implications for American democracy, and to use their sites to inform
interested members of the public that the memos are available at sites
not associated with Swarthmore.
Legal counsel has advised the College that a federal district court
ruling in a 1999 case, Intellectual Reserve vs. Utah Lighthouse
Ministry, suggests that providing direct hyperlinks may be construed
as contributory copyright infringement. Therefore, at this point,
Swarthmore has not permitted such links to remain on student web sites
cited by Diebold. It is the College's policy not to actively monitor
or control the content of student, faculty, and staff web pages other
than in response to specific legal concerns, a policy the College is
continuing to follow.
Swarthmore president Alfred H. Bloom said, "The College is deeply
proud of its students' resolve to act on behalf of an open and fair
democracy and believes that the finest teaching of civic
responsibility encourages students to act on their commitment to a
better society by first seeking approaches within the law to reach
socially significant goals, before considering civil disobedience."
For more information, please read "E-Vote Protest Gains Momentum" in
Wired News and Associate Professor of History Timothy Burke's blog
entry on the subject.
Document published by the Office of News and Information.
Content copyright 2003 Swarthmore College.
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is
distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior
interest in receiving the included information for research and
educational purposes.)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Joseph Lorenzo Hall http://pobox.com/~joehall/
Graduate Student blog: http://pobox.com/~joehall/nqb/
"If voting could really change things, it would be illegal."
--Excerpt from a Diebold Election Systems internal memo.
http://why-war.com/features/2003/10/diebold.html