(BBV) Reverse DMCA: Copyright Holder Held Liable in Landmark Legal Ruling

[TrogL]

http://www.linuxelectrons.com/article.php/20040930201813382

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.

Angelfire still hasn't restored my entire website.

[Boredtodeath]

1. Congratulations to Cindy Cohn and EFF!

Whoooooo hoooo, go Cindy! Big win, folks.

[sybylla]

2. Great news!

Now, can those who had their websites taken down get restitution? What's the next step in preventing this crap from happening again.

[Joanne98]

3. Slashdot has it too.....

Posted by michael on Friday October 01, @08:53AM
from the worm-turns dept.
JimMarch(equalccw) writes "Our favorite crooked voting company Diebold has lost a MAJOR copyright case (click for ruling here or description here). Short form: Diebold's internal documents (key excerpts here and here and here) and code were floated all over the 'net last year, showing all kinds of horror. Diebold filed cease'n'desist notices under the DMCA (such as mine linked here); a court has now ruled that Diebold wrongfully abused the DMCA by issuing these takedown notices about materials that they knew were not covered by their copyright."


http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/04/10/01/1225227.shtml?tid=123&tid=103&tid=1

Great news but i still say this e-voting machine mess will eventually end up in the WTO. i think it would be wise for all the plaintiffs to start getting ready for that. There are good lawyers working for Public Citizen.