Diebold Scheme in NYT

Pulled this link off of explodedlibrary where there is much much more on this subject.

It's good to see this finally get into the times. I think there are two major issues to be concerned with here.

1) Copyright law is, to an increasing degree, being used as a tool of suppression of free speech.

Legal scholars say that the online protest and the use of copyright law by Diebold have broad implications and show that the copyright wars are about more than whether Britney Spears gets royalties from downloaded songs. "We?re so focused on the microview whether EMI is going to make a buck next year but there is so much more at stake in our battle to control the flows of information,? including issues at the core of free speech and democracy itself," said Siva Vaidhyanathan, a professor in the department of culture and communication at New York University.

Indeed, while the news media tends to cast most of its attention toward the rather benign entertainment aspects of copyright law, abuses of this law in which the powerful use it as an intimidation tool go relatively unnoticed. Two recent instances of such abuse, have been perpetrated by Verizon against its employees and, more famously by Fox against Al Franken.

2) The most fundamental stone on which a functioning democracy is built, your right to vote, is under assault and this issue needs to be brought out into the open.

Read more:
Bev Harris explains exactly what is so insidious about the Diebold machine.
Greg Palast on why we shouldn't blindly trust public officials with stewardship of our right to vote.
Josh Marshall on the same issue.