The importance of community networks: Diebold vs. California Community Colo

Community Networks in Action

In 2003, San Francisco Indymedia, hosted at California Community Colo by the Linefeed group, was sent a cease-and-desist letter from the Diebold corporation, makers of ATMs and electronic voting machines. The letter said that documents posted to the Indymedia website were a DMCA copyright violation and should be pulled down immediately.

The documents were from an internal Diebold mailing list and employee emails on the list revealed flaws about Diebold's voting machines and inconsistencies between their public relations and what was really going on.

Because the colo facility was in the hands of the community, with close ties to the EFF, we were able to reject Diebold's order to remove the documents -- and what ensued made sure that Diebold's attempt to suppress this information from getting out would be reported on throughout the press. And that's what happened -- so much that even Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich joined the campaign and mirrored the leaked documents on his house.gov website!

With an international campaign growing and a lot of press coverage, Diebold withdrew their cease-and-desist order to us. They even ended up paying us for legal expenses.

A complete summary of events and court documents can be found here at EFF's website.