Scoop Feedback: Website Shutdown By Diebold

Tuesday, 16 September 2003, 9:17 am
Opinion: Scoop Feedback

To The Scoop Editor:

Diebold Accuses Website Owner And Web Hosting Company Of Copyright Infringement Of Voting Record

Black box voting refers to the secretive election process using insecure electronic voting machines manufactured by private corporations with ties to major Republicans and defense contractors. (For more on the phenomenon and the fight against this threat to individuals' voting rights, see http://www.blackboxvoting.com.) This disturbing trend has recently been picked up by the media (see Google News).

Yesterday, I launched a mirror of Jim March's Diebold test notes page, located at http://www.equalccw.com/dieboldtestnotes.html. This page contains files and details on how to examine a file from the March 2002 San Luis Obispo county primary election - a file that, evidence strongly suggests, contains results illegally accessed five hours before the polls closed.

Today, 28 hours after I uploaded these files to disseminate them under fair use, I was copied on an email reply from my web hosting company's reply to a letter from Walker & Jocke, a law firm that represents Diebold, Inc. The letter states that, as the website's owner, I have infringed Diebold's copyright.

The files in question are arguably public property - or should be - as they have been used in public elections and the machines the software come from have been paid for using public funds under the Helping Americans Vote Act (HAVA), passed after the 2000 Presidential election.

This is about Diebold, a private corporation, bullying a powerless individual (myself) into silence regarding their company's insecure, flawed, and potentially rigged electronic election process. As you can see, those of us concerned that Americans will lose their right to select their governing officials refuse to remain silent on this subject.

For more information, including the letter from Diebold and Jim March's stern rebuke, please visit http://www.smashthetrifecta.com.

Sincerely,

Matthew Allen, SmashTheTrifecta.com webmaster

© Scoop Media

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