For Immediate Release: October 31, 2003
Contact: Tom Krattenmaker
610-328-8534
tkratte1@swarthmore.edu
http://www.swarthmore.edu/news/
SWARTHMORE, Pa. -- The Swarthmore College administration is taking steps to support student activists who are challenging efforts by Diebold, Inc., to suppress the circulation of memos calling attention to problems with the company's electronic voting machines.
In keeping with the College's commitment to educate its students for socially responsible citizenship, it is challenging Diebold to justify its claim of copyright infringement and is helping students develop legal strategies to address the ethical and moral concerns motivating their attention to the Diebold voting machines.
Acting on legal counsel, the Swarthmore administration has advised students on the process for filing under the copyright law a "counter-notification" against Diebold's take-down demand. In addition, the administration has alerted students that it is defensible on fair-use and free-speech grounds to use their web sites to describe the content of the memos they have seen and their implications for American democracy, and to use their sites to inform interested members of the public that the memos are available at sites not associated with Swarthmore.
Legal counsel has advised the College that a federal district court ruling in a 1999 case, Intellectual Reserve vs. Utah Lighthouse Ministry, suggests that providing direct hyperlinks may be construed as contributory copyright infringement. Therefore, at this point, Swarthmore has not permitted such links to remain on student web sites cited by Diebold. It is the College's policy not to actively monitor or control the content of student, faculty, and staff web pages other than in response to specific legal concerns, a policy the College is continuing to follow.
Swarthmore president Alfred H. Bloom said, "The College is deeply proud of its students' resolve to act on behalf of an open and fair democracy and believes that the finest teaching of civic responsibility encourages students to act on their commitment to a better society by first seeking approaches within the law to reach socially significant goals, before considering civil disobedience."
For more information, read some of the national press coverage of this issue. Dean Gross issued a statement on Oct. 27; read it here.
Document published by the Office of News and
Information.
Content copyright © 2003 Swarthmore
College.