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Censorship Security United States Your Rights Online

Swarthmore Students Keep Diebold Memos Online 402

Posted by timothy from the diebold-knows-how-to-stinken-themselves dept.
An anonymous reader submits "Two student groups based out of Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania announced today that they are rejecting Diebold Elections Systems' cease-and-desist orders and are initiating an electronic civil disobedience campaign that will ensure permanent public access to the controversial leaked memos. You can read the memos, search the memos, or download the memos."
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Swarthmore Students Keep Diebold Memos Online More

Swarthmore Students Keep Diebold Memos Online

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  • Uh, just stick em on freenet (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 21, 2003 @09:58PM (#7277864)
    Or host them in another country, and you'll always have access to them.

  • Slashdotted (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 21, 2003 @10:00PM (#7277870)
    I bet Diebold just posted it too slashdot too destroy it (servers dead with one post)...

    damn there creative
  • Permanent public access? Linking from slashdot may be less than beneficial in the short term...
  • Wow 0.19 of 11 MB downloaded, average is 0.0k per second. This will take a while. Does anyone have a mirror up yet?

  • How to Help Us - 3 Steps (Score:5, Informative)

    by mykawhite ( 149348 ) on Tuesday October 21, 2003 @10:03PM (#7277894) Homepage
    You can have a real effect on what is going to happen. Please take a few minutes to help us out with this action.

    Here's how to help:

    1) The students engaging in this civil disobedience are meeting with the Dean of their college Wednesday, October 22nd at 4pm. We need you to email *nice* and *supportive* emails to rgross1 (at) swarthmore.edu and cc them to info (at) why-war.com *before* October 22nd at 4pm EST. Please help Dean Bob Gross understand the importance of this issue!

    2) Download the entire memo archive:
    http://why-war.com/memos/s/lists.tgz

    3) Join the disobedience by hosting the memos and posting the URL in this thread

    SCDC: http://scdc.emegaweb.net/
    Why War?: http://www.why-war.com/
    • If you would like to send me them through some other means since I can no longer download them, I will host them on 2 different mirrors. contact me at coolmacguyosx@cox.net
    • You can have a real effect on what is going to happen. Please take a few minutes to help us out with this action.

      I think we just _did_ have some very real and very visible effect :)

    • Re:How to Help Us - 3 Steps (Score:5, Informative)

      by mykawhite ( 149348 ) on Tuesday October 21, 2003 @10:21PM (#7278002) Homepage
      Email info (at) why-war.com if you are willing to mirror the files.
      • How big is a .torrent file?

        • Re:How to Help Us - 3 Steps (Score:5, Informative)

          by jonabbey ( 2498 ) * <jonabbey@ganymeta.org> on Tuesday October 21, 2003 @10:53PM (#7278195) Homepage

          A torrent file is tiny.. only a few k, at most. The problem is that a torrent is useless unless you have someone ready to seed the file that matches the torrent. Clients start downloading the file from the initial seed, and quickly get enough bits of the file that they are capable of serving pieces to other downloaders. Rather quickly, there are enough chunks outside of the original server that the load should drop on the initial server.

          At least, so long as people are continuously downloading/uploading the file. If everyone who downloads the file shuts off their bittorrent client when the download is complete, the original seed system may wind up being the only one providing the file.. as soon as that happens, you're back to square one, effectively.

    • Damn, I think the whole swarthmore domain is hosed.
      Currently downloading from that alt link at 4.2k/sec.
    • My email:

      Dear Mr. Gross,

      I am writing to you in support of the students at why-war.com, mirroring the memos of Diebold. They are doing a service to this country by keeping those memos in one place, so everyone can see how flawed Diebold machines are. If you read up on the issues of Diebold voting machines, you will see that they have numerous problems keeping track of votes, eg recording a NEGATIVE 16,000 votes for Gore in contested Florida. If you require more information, I am a very qualified computer p
    • BITTORRENT

      BITTORRENT

      BITTORRENT

      BITTORRENT

      !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

      Is this stuff on Freenet yet? (Then no one will see it.... :-) )

    • My e-mail to Dean Gross: (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Speare ( 84249 ) on Wednesday October 22, 2003 @08:55AM (#7280413) Homepage Journal
      Here's my letter:
      • I'm dropping a quick note in support of Open and Auditable voting rights, and in the rights to discuss the implementation of such systems.

      • Currently, a leading manufacturer of electronic voting systems named Diebold Systems is attempting to squelch critics and critical discussion of their products and business methods. Some of these critics are your students, as you are probably well aware. Such Cease and Desist orders are the first step in a campaign to control those who would dissent, and to intimidate those who would research.

        I believe this discussion rightly should include the publication of confidential business memoranda that have been acquired from Diebold Systems. These memoranda may show certain antipathy to the proper methodology and design for a secure voting infrastructure. It is only through such exposition that a frank discussion of security and responsibility can be pursued.

        Lastly, I am very concerned at corporate influence in government function. I have long held the position that "a corporation has no vested interest in the rights of the individual." I am not anti- business or anti-profit, but companies which perform vital government functions such as producing voting equipment must be adherent to the principles of a free and informed electorate, both in products and in deeds.

        I recommend you support your students, and support their cause to inform the public where possible on these issues.

        Please show your students that Democracy and Research are more important than corporate greed, and that transparency is critical when building a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

  • http://verifiedvoting.org - (Score:5, Informative)

    by horster ( 516139 ) on Tuesday October 21, 2003 @10:06PM (#7277913)
    Pleas join an existing, legitimate effort at http://verifiedvoting.org -

    This site, rather than continually despairing at the fact that there are problems with electronic voting, has concrete steps that average citizens can take to make change.
  • I'd like to mirror the memos if someone has them up, the main server can't be reached by me.

    Lets get a fundraising campaign for these guys going if they do indeed go through with it, they'll need it!
  • Why not put the documents on a P2P file sharing network, to provide access even if the "source" gets shut down? Oh yeah, I forgot, because only criminals and kids with lack of morals use P2P file sharing.

  • Wouldn't it be better to post it outside the US? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by baywulf ( 214371 ) on Tuesday October 21, 2003 @10:15PM (#7277968)
    Would make it harder for Diebold to fight back...

  • Print 'em up! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by NeuroManson ( 214835 ) on Tuesday October 21, 2003 @10:17PM (#7277984) Homepage
    Seriously, print up pamphlets and distribute them, citing the e-mails and memos, with a "dumbed down" non technical explaination of just what the problems are with Diebold machines. You don't need to spend hundreds of dollars on copies, just print out 10-50 pamphlets.

    Then hand them out to anyone and everyone you see on the street. If you can manage to do it outside of polling locations, all the better.

    There's only about 5 million people online, and talking about it amongst ourselves is not going to make any difference, especially since the mainstream news has been ignoring the issue. We are, in essense, the minority. The majority are those who need to be informed. The guys without computers, the guys without internet service.

    And maybe, just MAYBE, the more people in the general public that are made aware, then perhaps enough people will start asking questions that NOBODY can ignore the issue any further.
    • ...There's only about 5 million people online...

      Surely you left of a few zeros from that number? There's probably more than 5 million people on-line in California alone, never mind the rest of the country and world. I MIGHT buy 500 million, but even that seems low.
      • Good point, my numbers are a bit out of date. However, there's still a huge imbalance between people who actually look up this kind of information, as opposed to those who use the net for e-mail and similar mundane activities, *and* those who are "unplugged", as it were.

    • Re:Print 'em up! (Score:3, Insightful)

      by fishbowl ( 7759 )
      To go further, I'll bet that printed flyers distributed by hand are immune to any sort of cease and desist order. It's clearly political speech, and it doesn't have that stigma of being "on the internet."

    • Re:Print 'em up! (Score:3, Interesting)

      by mcrbids ( 148650 )
      Seriously, print up pamphlets and distribute them, citing the e-mails and memos, with a "dumbed down" non technical explaination of just what the problems are with Diebold machines. You don't need to spend hundreds of dollars on copies, just print out 10-50 pamphlets.

      Great. Put together such a pamphlet. Make sure it self references "http://www.effortlessis.com/evoting.pdf" so that more copies can be printed. Make sure it's informative, and eye-catching.

      I'll host it.

      Now, the sad part of today's society

  • INCRIMINATING MEMOS!!!!(since the site is so slow) (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 21, 2003 @10:18PM (#7277990)
    Friday, 12 September 2003 (PDT)
    By Bev Harris - blackboxvoting.org

    http://www.blackboxvoting.com

    If certification isn't being done properly, the whole house of cards falls. Below are actual copies of internal Diebold memos which show that uncertified software is being used in elections, and that Diebold programmers intentionally end-run the system.

    Quick backgrounder first, scroll down to see the memos.

    BACKGROUND

    Our voting system, which is part of the public commons has recently been privatized. When this happened, the counting of the votes, which must be a public process, subjected to the scrutiny of many eyes of plain old citizens, became a secret.

    The computerized systems that register voters, will soon sign voters into the polling place using a digital smart card, record the vote we cast, and tally it are now so secret they are not allowed to be examined by any citizens group, or even by academics like the computer scientists at major universities.

    The corporate justification for this secrecy is that these systems adhere to a list of "standards" put out by the Federal Election Commission, and that an "ITA" (Independent Testing Authority) carefully examines the voting system, which is then provided to states for their own certification.

    As it turns out, the states typically do not examine the computer code at all, relying instead on a "Logic and Accuracy" test which will not catch fraud and has frequently missed software programming errors that cause the machines to miscount.

    A Diebold message board has been used since 1999 to help technicians in the field interact with programmers to solve problems. The contents of this message board were quietly sent to reporters and activists around the world, most likely by a Diebold employee. In a letter to WiredNews, Diebold has acknowledged that these memos are from its own staff message boards.

    Without further commentary, judge for yourself whether Diebold has been following certification requirements:

    From Nel Finberg, Technical Writer, Diebold Election Systems

    (Note: Metamor/Ciber is the ITA assigned to certify the software)

    alteration of Audit Log in Access

    To: "support"
    Subject: alteration of Audit Log in Access
    From: "Nel Finberg"
    Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2001 23:31:30 -0700
    Importance: Normal

    Jennifer Price at Metamor (about to be Ciber) has indicated that she can access the GEMS Access database and alter the Audit log without entering a password. What is the position of our development staff on this issue? Can we justify this? Or should this be anathema?
    Nel

    Reply from Ken Clark, principal engineer for Diebold Election Systems

    RE: alteration of Audit Log in Access

    To:
    Subject: RE: alteration of Audit Log in Access
    From: "Ken Clark"
    Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2001 09:55:02 -0700
    Importance: Normal
    In-reply-to:

    Its a tough question, and it has a lot to do with perception. Of course everyone knows perception is reality.

    Right now you can open GEMS' .mdb file with MS-Access, and alter its contents. That includes the audit log. This isn't anything new. In VTS, you can open the database with progress and do the same. The same would go for anyone else's system using whatever database they are using. Hard drives are read-write entities. You can change their contents.

    Now, where the perception comes in is that its right now very *easy* to change the contents. Double click the .mdb file. Even technical wizards at Metamor (or Ciber, or whatever) can figure that one out.

    It is possible to put a secret password on the .mdb file to prevent Metamor from opening it with Access. I've threatened to put a password on the .mdb before when dealers/customers/support have done stupid things with the GEMS database structure using Access. Being able to end-run the database has admittedly got people out of a bind though. Jane (I thin
    • Does anyone else see a new hall of fame story in the making, "Diebold orders /. to remove posts"? Sure is fun to watch however (even when slashdot caves in to the $cientoligi$t$).
      • IIRC the $cientology stuff was just modded down and not deleted... therefore it can be found by those looking... same should be done with the diebold memos... just make it easy to fin the posts but keep them modded low to have an added benefit of saving bandwith for the server and visitors not intending to get said documents

    • READ THIS (Score:3, Informative)

      by Billly Gates ( 198444 )
      What really scares me is Diebold's political activities which are biased.

      Read my rant here [slashdot.org].

    • Re:INCRIMINATING MEMOS!!!!(since the site is so sl (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Maserati ( 8679 ) on Wednesday October 22, 2003 @01:27AM (#7278834) Homepage Journal
      Dear God. What these people consider a 'release" version should count as criminal negligence on an ordinary project. This is about an election, nothing - with the possible exception of the judicial system that may have to step in over this - is more important in our system of government.

      I mean... My God ! They don't know what they're sending to the client ! "Is this a "testing" release or not? (Ashamed to ask). I think the hallucinations ought to be resurfacing with Steve already. Ken"

      Where are the US Marshall's ? Ashamed to ask ? How's he gonna feel under interrogation ? Or on the witness stand. Draft 'em and send 'em to Leavenworth.

  • it ain't civil disobedience (Score:5, Insightful)

    by frovingslosh ( 582462 ) on Tuesday October 21, 2003 @10:19PM (#7277996)
    electronic civil disobedience campaign that will

    As far as I can tell, it's only sleezy Diebold who is telling people not to post the memos. Unless these kids are standing up against a court order to take down the information, they are hardly participating in civil disobedience just because they are pointing out serious flaws in Diebold's buggy system and not listening to Diebold when they say to stop, flaws that Diebold would apparently like to hide.

    • Me neither. But it sounds like the students freely admit to breaking the law -- which they are or not, I don't know -- and are doing it in order to keep this information public, because they believe that risking legal action in this situation is worth the public good. Seems to me that qualifies as civil disobedience, whether or not they ever end up in a courtroom.
    • they are hardly participating in civil disobedience

      Judging by the information you expressed in your message, you may not be aware of the gradual transition of power from elected representatives of the people to appointed representatives of the corporate sector...

      Just to bring you up to date on how things are today:

      - Corporations now have primary consideration before indivudal people for all high-impact legislative decisions. (tax relief, wars, special contracts, etc)

      - Citizens who threaten to harm the

  • Keeping the memos available (Score:4, Informative)

    by Nom du Keyboard ( 633989 ) on Tuesday October 21, 2003 @10:24PM (#7278029)
    an electronic civil disobedience campaign that will ensure permanent public access to the controversial leaked memos.

    Freenet.

    Exactly why it exists.

    • yes, but they want people to see them ;)
    • What is with these misconceptions about freenet.

      First of all, Freenet is making rapid progress despite the fact they have very *very* limited funding. I'm currently able to insert and receive gigabytes of stuff off freenet. Perhaps if you did as suggested and left your node on for a few days so it could intergrate into the network you'd see some speed.

      Second, this child pornography thing is false. The main sites have little if any of it, see for yourself. As well, this porgraphy content could easily b

  • USENET would be appropriate (Score:3, Insightful)

    by bigberk ( 547360 ) <bigberk@users.pc9.org> on Tuesday October 21, 2003 @10:24PM (#7278036)
    This is the kind of information that can be easily postedon USENET. This would provide worldwide public access distribution for the content, except at ISPs that choose to censor the data of course.

  • digital cohones (Score:2, Interesting)

    by meeotch ( 524339 )
    This link [equalccw.com] (right side of why-war page) is pretty intense. Pick away at the guy's amateur lawyering if you want, but it shows more sack than signing an e-petition, anyway.

    mitch

  • Wish you'd straighten out your rhetoric (Score:5, Insightful)

    by dcollins ( 135727 ) on Tuesday October 21, 2003 @10:46PM (#7278158) Homepage
    From the link...

    War? believes that what we are doing is legal; though we see it as an issue of electronic civil disobedience we believe it is Diebold which is abusing copyright law in an attempt to shut down free speech and the democratic process.

    Okay, now it's either legal OR it's civil disobedience (i.e., intentionally breaking a law, and accepting an unjust punishment, to draw attention to an issue). As someone who supports this effort -- someone who's done a little political action and gets steaming mad at scatterbrained hippies who drag down liberal progressive movements -- I'd prefer that they straighten out the claims of their action.

    I think it would be preferable to claim that Diebold's cease-and-desist order is illegal and unenforceable. Then, keeping the memos online is even better than civil disobedience (noble in its own right), it's actually civil obedience for a just cause.

    • You can legally disobey a company. I'd say that's a civil version of disobedience. No?

    • Okay, now it's either legal OR it's civil disobedience (i.e., intentionally breaking a law, and accepting an unjust punishment, to draw attention to an issue).

      I believe there is an argument that it is neither. It should be seen as protected speech under the protections of the first amendment of the US Constitution.

      In the US supreme court's landmark Sullivan decision, it was firmly established that speech criticizing public officials was more or less immune to ordinary charges of libel.

      The court adopt

  • Relax, it's not so bad... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by mclove ( 266201 ) on Tuesday October 21, 2003 @10:51PM (#7278186)
    It's not like this is going to favor Republicans just because the guy running Diebold is a Republican - with security this bad it's open season for everyone. I think the more worrying thing would be if these machines weren't hackable but were iron-clad, then the only backdoors would belong to the guys who wrote the code; instead, the backdoors are wide open to any idiot who wishes to wander in.

    If these machines really are hackable then they'll be hacked, and going by the intelligence of your average script kiddie they'll be hacked to such a ridiculous degree that the results will clearly be fake and the judiciary will declare all of these elections invalid. I mean, really, when Kevin Mitnick is mysteriously elected governor of Minnesota in a write-in vote and NORML supporters sweep the legislative elections in nine states, somebody's going to start asking questions...

  • Swathmore Tradition (Score:5, Interesting)

    by toxic666 ( 529648 ) on Tuesday October 21, 2003 @10:54PM (#7278201)
    Before we condemn these students about a civil disobedience stance against electronic voting, keep in mind these folks are at a Quaker-based college and are acting in those traditions. A few of the posts modded up have been somewhat critical of the motives and methods.

    The Society of Friends -- Quakers -- have a long history of questioning that which is conventionally accepted. Thus, they were among the first to question slavery:

    http://www.gospelcom.net/chi/DAILYF/2002/02/dail y- 02-18-2002.shtml

    Quaker-based organizations -- The American Friends Service Committee and British Friends Service Council -- won the 1947 Nobel Peace Prize for their material aid efforts in postwar Europe, particularly in Germany which was then an international paraih:

    http://www.afsc.org/about/nobel.htm

    And they were in Cambodia when nobody else would go.

    Pick a topic -- civil rights, underground railroad, women's rights, GLBT, tolerance of different religions among them -- and Quakers have been quietly (and sometimes not so quietly) questioning convention and willing to stand by their decisions, even when confronted with prison and punishment.

    Check http://www.quaker.org if you want to read about how these people have stood in the face of convention and often ended up ahead of their times. Hint: William Penn Hat Trial.

    And no, they DO NOT dress like the 17th century guy on the oats box. That's more of an Amish style.
    • Damn straight, and did you know, the first Quaker president was good ol Tricky Dicky Nixon himself. Go you Quakers :-)

  • Memos now on Slashdot! (Score:4, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 21, 2003 @10:55PM (#7278202)
    Here are the memos (saved them from the last time Slashdot mentioned them). Now go Slashdot yourself, Slashdot.

    From Nel Finberg, Technical Writer, Diebold Election Systems

    (Note: Metamor/Ciber is the ITA assigned to certify the software)

    alteration of Audit Log in Access

    To: support
    Subject: alteration of Audit Log in Access
    From: Nel Finberg
    Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2001 23:31:30 -0700
    Importance: Normal

    Jennifer Price at Metamor (about to be Ciber) has indicated that she can access the GEMS Access database and alter the Audit log without entering a password. What is the position of our development staff on this issue? Can we justify this? Or should this be anathema?

    Nel

    Reply from Ken Clark, principal engineer for Diebold Election Systems

    RE: alteration of Audit Log in Access
    To:
    Subject: RE: alteration of Audit Log in Access
    From: Ken Clark
    Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2001 09:55:02 -0700
    Importance: Normal
    In-reply-to:

    Its a tough question, and it has a lot to do with perception. Of course everyone knows perception is reality.
    Right now you can open GEMS' .mdb file with MS-Access, and alter its contents. That includes the audit log. This isn't anything new. In VTS, you can open the database with progress and do the same. The same would go for anyone else's system using whatever database they are using. Hard drives are read-write entities. You can change their contents.

    Now, where the perception comes in is that its right now very *easy* to change the contents. Double click the .mdb file. Even technical wizards at Metamor (or Ciber, or whatever) can figure that one out.

    It is possible to put a secret password on the .mdb file to prevent Metamor from opening it with Access. I've threatened to put a password on the .mdb before when dealers/customers/support have done stupid things with the GEMS database structure using Access. Being able to end-run the database has admittedly got people out of a bind though. Jane (I think it was Jane) did some fancy footwork on the .mdb file in Gaston recently. I know our dealers do it. King County is famous for it. That's why we've never put a password on the file before.
    Note however that even if we put a password on the file, it doesn't really prove much. Someone has to know the password, else how would GEMS open it. So this technically brings us back to square one: the audit log is modifiable by that person at least (read, me). Back to perception though, if you don't bring this up you might skate through Metamor.

    There might be some clever crypto techniques to make it even harder to change the log (for me, they guy with the password that is). We're talking big changes here though, and at the moment largely theoretical ones. I'd doubt that any of our competitors are that clever.

    By the way, all of this is why Texas gets its sh*t in a knot over the log printer. Log printers are not read-write, so you don't have the problem. Of course if I were Texas I would be more worried about modifications to our electronic ballots than to our electron logs, but that is another story I guess.

    Bottom line on Metamor is to find out what it is going to take to make them happy. You can try the old standard of the NT password gains access to the operating system, and that after that point all bets are off. You have to trust the person with the NT password at least. This is all about Florida, and we have had VTS certified in Florida under the status quo for nearly ten years.

    I sense a loosing battle here though. The changes to put a password on the .mdb file are not trivial and probably not even backward compatible, but we'll do it if that is what it is going to take.

    Ken

    Reply by Nel Finberg

    RE: alteration of Audit Log in Access
    To:

  • This ought to be posted into FreeNet, where it cannot be killed. And putting up a BitTorrent of the files isn't a bad idea, either.

  • Mirrors Available (Score:3, Informative)

    by coolmacdude ( 640605 ) on Tuesday October 21, 2003 @11:22PM (#7278327) Homepage Journal
    These are my two best servers. Though I must admit, they have never had a severe bandwidth test. I guess its about time.
    Please provide other mirrors if you can.
    Here you go:

    mirror1.coolmacguy.com/lists.gtar [coolmacguy.com]
    mirror2.coolmacguy.com/lists.gtar [coolmacguy.com]

  • Please support BlackBoxVoting.com (Score:3, Informative)

    by DrunkClam ( 555170 ) on Tuesday October 21, 2003 @11:26PM (#7278340)
    they've been doing most of the grunt work on this issue. Bev Harris deserves alot of credit. They have a really easy way to donate on their front page. 2 paypal buttons, 1 is a one time payment, the other is a $1.99 supscription. 2 bucks a month is cheap if you consider what these people are trying to do. So please help them out.

  • I used to worry (Score:5, Interesting)

    by fishbowl ( 7759 ) on Tuesday October 21, 2003 @11:28PM (#7278356)
    I used to worry about all the lame-brained, right-wing-liberal, hippie-conservative, crazy assed shit that I've said over the years, and whether having my various posts where I've been all over the political spectrum, all over the spectrum of sanity and insanity, and everywhere from reasonable and educational to bloodthirsty pirate and troll.... I've worried that this legacy would take some explaining, maybe someday, if I were being recruited by the NSA or something, or any other job interview.

    But I WOULD NOT trade for anyone named on any of these Diebold memos.

    If these discussions are really true, if they are really from developers and QA people, they had better count their lucky stars if the interviewer at their next job isn't political.

    You could probably get away with a batch file that prints "system test passed" for all I know.
    --Ken Clark

    I may have said some crazy-assed crap in my time, but that's because I tend to be a clown. But I don't think I'd want to go on record with something like this. I actually might be more inclined to blow the whistle on this operation. Which is obviously what someone did do.

  • Everyone says p2p is evil, but in a case like this it can really shine. Download it, put it on your favorite P2P app properly named, and bandwidth will come. There's no stopping half a million netizens who are hosting it off of their boxen.

  • Bittorrent link (Score:4, Informative)

    by nstrom ( 152310 ) on Wednesday October 22, 2003 @12:11AM (#7278556)
    Try this [uploadit.org] bittorrent mirror link; this torrent uses multiple trackers so even if the tracker is taken down it will still work, as long as there are seeds connected (or even once complete copy of the file across all the downloaders).

  • I just mailed off the following to the addresses i (Score:3, Informative)

    by jefu ( 53450 ) on Wednesday October 22, 2003 @09:57AM (#7280950) Homepage Journal
    I am a professor of computer science with a long time interest incomputer security and related matters (though I do not publish or research primarily in that field).

    I find that the legal climate concerning publications about computer security is becoming such that research in this area is increasingly being put in jeopardy. In large part this comes about as a result ofthe DMCA, but the problems that the DMCA cause are being exacerbated by companies issuing gag orders on publications that they find embarrassing or annoying. Should this be allowed to continue, fundamental research in the area ofcomputer security may well become an underground activity - with prior restraint on publication, gag orders on publications that do make it out and severe penalties on those who support or condone such publications or even such research even at second hand.

    I urge Swarthmore to contest this legal threat and to continue to support academic freedom on all levels.

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