Diebold Election Systems, Inc.
1611 Wilmeth Road
McKinnney, TX 75069
972 542-6000
fax 972 542-6044
December 3, 2003
Dear Mr. Doherty:
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
