Diebold retraction letter

Diebold has started sending retraction letters to those of us C&D'd... I'll post mine when I get it.

UPDATE (2003-12-04 09:06:56): I've received my retraction letter and the text is posted below.

(via a preponderance of evidence via Tech Law Advisor)

Diebold Election Systems, Inc.
1611 Wilmeth Road
McKinnney, TX 75069
972 542-6000
fax 972 542-6044
www.dieboldes.com

December 3, 2003

Dear Ms. [UC Berkeley's listed copyright authority] Craig:

As President of Diebold Election Systems, Inc., I wish to inform you
that our company is withdrawing the notification recently issued under
the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998. Diebold has decided not
to sue ISPs or their subscribers now or in the future for copyright
infringement for the non-commercial use of the materials posted to
date, even though the uses may not qualify as "fair use" under the
law.

From the outset, I want to emphasize that Diebold's overarching goal
is to assist voters in exercising their most fundamental
constitutional right: the right to vote. We believe that our touch
screen and other electronic voting technologies are a major leap
forward in helping more Americans vote with increased accuracy and
accessibility. Touch screen technology eliminates "overvoting" and
significantly reduces "undervoting." In addition, our touch screen
technology offers multi-lingual ballot capability and enables the
visually impaired to vote without assistance for the first time in
their lives.

We recognize that how America votes is a matter of intense public
interest, as it should be, and we support the electorate's right to
participate in an open and robust debate on that topic. I want to
assure you that my company's use of the Digital Millennium Copyright
Act in response to the theft of internal information and development
materials does not diminish our commitment to the constitutional
values of our country.

No company-whether an ISP, a software developer, or any type of
company-wants its internal conversations openly broadcast, and I am
sure your internal business correspondence includes information
involving the unique capabilities and insights that you feel are
important to the successful operation of your company. The
correspondence between individuals within our company often contains
information concerning unique software, features and capabilities that
provide Diebold with a potential advantage in a competitive
marketplace. This type of information constitutes Diebold's work
product and important intellectual property.

With that background, here is what led to the current situation. In
January of this year, some software and other material was
inadvertently exposed through a website of a predecessor company. In
March, a hacker broke into one of our servers and stole a considerable
quantity of our documents including a significant archive of
information which is proprietary to Diebold. As you can imagine, the
issue for Diebold, as for any other company in a similar circumstance,
was what to do about the theft of its property in which it had a
copyright interest, especially given the ease and quickness with which
the stolen material could and did spread around the Internet.

In order to protect its intellectual property rights, Diebold chose to
notify ISPs, as expressly permitted by the DMCA, that stolen material,
in which Diebold has a copyright interest, was being hosted on or
linked to websites under the ISP's control. Although we believe our
legal position was and continues to be correct, we recognize that our
DMCA efforts have become the story, and may be influencing the debate
on how America's votes can be recorded and tallied most accurately.

To help refocus the public debate on that central issue, and
recognizing that a considerable amount of the stolen email archive is
now widely available on the Internet, Diebold has decided not to sue
ISPs or their subscribers for copyright infringement for the
non-commercial use of the materials. We are also withdrawing the DMCA
notifications previously sent to you and other ISPs.

In taking this action, we are underscoring Diebold's commitment not
only to provide the best voting systems in America, but to contribute
to a robust public debate on how to record and tally the vote most
accurately and efficiently. We welcome your input and suggestions
concerning how we as citizens can further enhance the election
process. Please let me know if you have any questions or comments
concerning our position.

Sincerely,

Robert J. Urosevich

President

Posted by joebeone at Diciembre 4, 2003 09:30 AM