[IP] OPG v. Diebold: You abuse copyright law, you pay - actual damages
Begin forwarded message:
From: Joseph Lorenzo Hall <joehall@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: September 30, 2004 8:03:17 PM EDT
To: Dave Farber <dave@xxxxxxxxxx>, Declan McCullagh <declan@xxxxxxxx>
Subject: OPG v. Diebold: You abuse copyright law, you pay - actual
damages
Reply-To: joehall@xxxxxxxxx
Dave, Declan, both of you forwarded email of mine concerning the
Diebold memos last Fall that are at issue in the case just barely
decided below. I received a cease and desist along with the two
swarthmore students below (and OPG) and about a dozen or so other
students across the nation. Thank you, Joe PS: Please donate to the
EFF! https://secure.eff.org/
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Electronic Frontier Foundation Media Release
For Immediate Release: Thursday, September 30, 2004
Contact:
Wendy Seltzer
Staff Attorney
Electronic Frontier Foundation
wendy@xxxxxxx
+1 415 436-9333 x125 (office), +1 914 374-0613 (cell)
Jennifer Granick
Clinical Director
Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society
jennifer@xxxxxxxxxxx
+1 650 724-0014
EFF Wins in Diebold Copyright Abuse Case
Voting Machine Company Liable for Damages, Costs in
Landmark Ruling
San Jose - In a landmark case, a California district court
has determined that Diebold, Inc., a manufacturer of
electronic voting machines, knowingly misrepresented that
online commentators, including IndyMedia and two Swarthmore
college students, had infringed the company's copyrights.
This makes the company the first to be held liable for
violating section 512(f) of the Digital Millennium
Copyright Act (DMCA), which makes it unlawful to use DMCA
takedown threats when the copyright holder knows that
infringement has not actually occured.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the Center for
Internet and Society Cyberlaw Clinic at Stanford Law School
sued on behalf of nonprofit Internet Service Provider (ISP)
Online Policy Group (OPG) and the two students to prevent
Diebold's abusive copyright claims from silencing public
debate about voting.
Diebold sent dozens of cease-and-desist letters to ISPs
hosting leaked internal documents revealing flaws in
Diebold's e-voting machines. The company claimed copyright
violations and used the DMCA to demand that the documents
be taken down. One ISP, OPG, refused to remove them in the
name of free speech, and thus became the first ISP to test
whether it would be held liable for the actions of its
users in such a situation.
"This decision is a victory for free speech and for
transparency in discussions of electronic voting
technology," said Wendy Seltzer, an EFF staff attorney who
worked on the case. "Judge Fogel recognized the fair use
of copyrighted materials in critical discussion and gave
speakers a remedy when their speech is chilled by improper
claims of copyright infringement."
OPG Executive Director Will Doherty said, "This ruling
means that we have legal recourse to protect ourselves and
our clients when we are sent misleading or abusive takedown
notices."
In his decision, Judge Jeremy Fogel wrote, "No reasonable
copyright holder could have believed that the portions of
the email archive discussing possible technical problems
with Diebold's voting machines were proteced by copyright .
. . the Court concludes as a matter of law that Diebold
knowingly materially misrepresented that Plaintiffs
infringed Diebold's copyright interest."
Fogel's decision:
http://www.eff.org/legal/ISP_liability/OPG_v_Diebold/
20040930_Diebold_SJ_Order.pdf
For this release:
http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2004_09.php#001961
About EFF
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the leading civil
liberties organization working to protect rights in the
digital world. Founded in 1990, EFF actively encourages and
challenges industry and government to support free
expression and privacy online. EFF is a member-supported
organization and maintains one of the most linked-to
websites in the world at http://www.eff.org/
-end-
--
Joseph Lorenzo Hall
UC Berkeley, SIMS PhD Student
http://pobox.com/~joehall/
blog: http://pobox.com/~joehall/nqb2/
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