Firm's attempts to down hyperlinks an attack on free speech, says EFF

THE ANTICS OF DIEBOLD, a maker of electronic voting systems, which has been leaning on ISPs to get them to prevent linking to a election of its internal memos here, have drawn the EFF into the ring.

The memos seem to show how Diebold sought to demo software it didn't have and apparently installed outdated versions of its GEM software in elections.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation says it stepped in because it wants to defend the right to link to controversial information about flaws in electronic voting systems: "What topic could be more important to our democracy than discussions about the mechanics and legitimacy of electronic voting systems now being introduced nationwide?" said EFF Staff Attorney Wendy Seltzer, in a statement.

Diebold sent out dozens of notices to ISPs hosting IndyMedia and other websites linking to or publishing copies of Diebold internal memos. The only ISP to resist so far, says the EFF, is the non-profit Online Policy Group (OPG) ISP.

The EFF says it has been exposing some of the ways the 'safe harbor' provision in 1998's The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) limits free speech online. The act allows ISPs to remove content, or force the user to do so, for a minimum of 10 days, to "take itself out of the middle of any copyright claim."

"We defend strongly the free speech right of our client IndyMedia to publish links to Diebold memos relevant to the public debate about electronic voting machine security," said Online Policy Group Executive Director Will Doherty. "Diebold's claim of copyright infringement from linking to information posted elsewhere on the Web is ridiculous, and even more silly is the claim that we as an ISP could be liable for our client's web links." µ