E-voting flap sparks legal threats

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.msnbc.com/news/985810.asp?0cv=CB20

Despite lawsuit threats from one of the nation’s largest electronic voting machine suppliers, some activists are refusing to remove from Web sites internal company documents that they claim raise serious security questions.

DIEBOLD INC. sent “cease and desist” letters after the documents and internal e-mails, allegedly stolen by a hacker, were distributed on the Internet. Recipients of the letters included computer programmers, students at Swarthmore College and at least one Internet provider.

Most of the 13,000 pages of documents are little more than banal employee e-mails, routine software manuals and old voter record files. But several items appear to raise security concerns.

Diebold refused to discuss the documents’ contents. Company spokesman Mike Jacobsen said the fact that the company sent the cease-and-desist letters does not mean the documents are authentic — or give credence to advocates who claim lax Diebold security could allow hackers to rig machines.

“We’re cautioning anyone from drawing wrong or incomplete conclusions about any of those documents or files purporting to be authentic,” Jacobsen said.

[La_Serpiente]

1. FINALLY

THIS IS GETTING MAINSTREAM COVERAGE....THIS HAS BEEN ON THE INTERNET FOR AGES!!!

[frank frankly]

2. good good

good!!!

[Pale_Rider]

3. What a hoot ...

... Diebold own actions will probably bring more scrutiny upon itself and its actions. GO DIEBOLD. BRING EM ON!

“The cease-and-desist orders are like a drug dealer saying, ’Hey, cop, give me back my crack.’ It’s an incredible tactical blunder,” he said.

[Zhade]

4. I got one of those letters, Diebold.

And you can still fuck off. These is about our right to vote, and we won't back down. Ever.

[Snazzy]

5. AP story!

Good deal. Hope Diebold brings it, get EFF on top of it and some testimony on record, evidence introduced.

Pessimism however sez: I bet they back off. Empty DMCA threats. Diebold doesn't want time in the sun--just to quietly steal some votes here and there, and make money doing it.

All the more reason to get in their face more.

[Melsky]

6. Right On!

Diebold has outFOXed themselves by suing and creating a lot of publicity for the other side.

[Bushfire]

9. No doubt, they played their cards wrong with the c & d letters

MSNBC is still linking to www.blackboxvoting.org site, which has the heading still of "WE'RE BACK!!!!!!!!!". Kick ass!

[0rganism]

11. Not just the header... the Chapter 11 summary is DAMNING

"If you strip away the partisan rancor over the 2000 election, you are left with the undeniable fact that a presidential candidate conceded the election to his opponent based on a second card (card #3) that mysteriously appeared, subtracted 16,022 votes from Al Gore, and in some still undefined way, added 4,000 erroneous votes to George W. Bush, then, just as mysteriously, disappears."

READ THIS!

[Snazzy]

7. Yahoo AP Story Link

http://tinyurl.com/sn9g

Vote early, vote often!

[Bushfire]

8. I bumped it up to the number 2 story

it now has 23 votes at a 4.83 rating...

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[dbt]

13. That would be SO illegal, immoral and unethical

That it probably needs to be done if Diebold et al insist on ramming their no-audit machines down the American throat. Let the election proceed, hack the results and then come forward (anonymously of course) with proof that the results have been manipulated.

If even a small number of offices have to be re-voted, the uproar over time and money will be huge. And the lawsuits will fly like locusts.

What an excellent* idea!

:evilgrin:
dbt

*"But it would be wrong." --Richard Nixxon, 1973

[SaddenedDem]

16. WRONG! Good way to get our activists thrown in jail

There are activists who have publicly admitted they can hack these machines. If an election is hacked where the hell do you think they are going first?????

Think about it - many of the activists and experts have claimed elections are hackable with these machines. You'll send the Ashcroft thugs down on their heads!!!!!

Be smart! Don't be an ass.

[Kinkistyle]

12. Like stuffing smoke back into a cigarette...

The documents are out on the internet and concerned hacktivists are proliferating it around. Once the cat is out of the back, its DAMN hard to get it back in - not even the American Supreme Court can do it, because unfortunately for the Thugs who currently populate the Supreme Court, America is not the only country that has access to the Internet.

But by all means, make a big deal of it, Diebold. Test the waters and make it so the courts demand all the evidence and make it public evidence.

[schultzee]

14. If these thugs continue with this abuse of our democracy then all

is fair. Send out the Dem hackerw and distroy thier systems. They are distroying democracy and that means we have a right to stop them.

[MGKrebs]

15. Let me get this straight...

They send cease and desist papers, and yet do not claim the documents are authentic? Why would any ISP respond to that?

So I could have a lawyer send a cease and desist to my business competitor claiming what, the info on their website was gotten illegally, but that it may or may not be authentic? That makes NO sense.

[Timefortruth]

18. Exactly, they want it both ways but

either you're on the bus or you're off the bus.

[Spazito]

17. By sending out the cease and desist notices, Diebold just brought...

more mainstream attention to the issue of BBV. Gotta love it! Now they will have to produce the "originals" to show the circulated e-mails are not authentic and I doubt very much they will do that so they are screwed!