Red State NC Fights Back against Diebold! Another Lawsuit Filed!

EFF and Others Petition to Stop 18 Month Countdown to Internet Backdoors

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the Center for Democracy and Technology, and representatives of industry, academia, librarians and others today filed a joint request for a stay with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), arguing that the Commission has been "unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious" in demanding that broadband Internet access providers and interconnected Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers include backdoors for wiretaps in their services. The stay requested that the Commission should either postpone its Spring 2007 "full compliance" deadline for implementing these taps, or halt the requirement entirely.

EFF, CDT, and other groups have already petitioned the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to overrule the FCC's September 23rd ruling extending the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) to cover broadband Internet access and Voice-over-IP (VoIP) service providers. Under the ruling, companies like Vonage and private institutions that provide Net access, such as universities, have 18 months to redesign their networks to be wiretap-friendly, but neither the ruling nor the FCC have been willing to specify what is required.

"The FCC has distorted an already dubious law designed for telephone services in order to reach Internet providers and private networks," said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Lee Tien. "They have plainly overreached their authority in requiring internet providers to design systems that make surveillance of the public easier and we are confident that the courts will agree. But in the meantime the FCC deadline has not been moved and no one knows what CALEA compliance means on the Internet. The Commission refused to say, the FBI has been playing coy, and the rest of us just don't know. The result is a nonsensical deadline that forces companies to begin compliance without knowing what is required of them, or whether CALEA even applies to them, all happening in the shadow of a strong claim that the FCC does not even have authority to do this at all. The FCC needs to call a timeout until it knows what it wants, and seriously reconsider whether it has the authority to demand it."

http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:HoFq57Rf1fYJ:www.eff.org/news/archives/2005_11.php+EFF+files+lawsuit+in+NC,+McCloy&hl=en

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EFF: Breaking News
EFF Files Class Action Lawsuit Against Sony BMG ... On behalf of North Carolina voter and election integrity advocate Joyce McCloy, EFF asked the court to ...
www.eff.org/news/archives/2005_11.php - 50k - Dec 6, 2005 - Cached - Similar pages

EFF: Breaking News
EFF intervened in the case on behalf of North Carolina voter and election integrity advocate Joyce McCloy, with assistance from Don Beskind and the North ...
www.eff.org/news/ - 33k - Dec 6, 2005 - Cached - Similar pages

Black Box Voting: Ballot-Tampering in the 21st CenturyJoyce McCloy, founder of the NC Coalition for Verified Voting, ... In a brief filed Wednesday, EFF argued that Diebold had failed to show why it was unable ...
www.blackboxvoting.com/ - 85k - Dec 6, 2005 - Cached - Similar pages

NC may be red when it comes to the Presidential election, but statewide we are blue... Democratic governor and Democratic legislature. And we have no constitutional amendment banning gay marriage! Shhhh, don't tell anyone!!

December 08, 2005 North Carolina Sued for Illegally Certifying Voting Equipment
EFF Asks Court to Void Approval of Diebold and Others Without Source Code Review.

"This is about the rule of law," said EFF Staff Attorney Matt Zimmerman.

"The Board of Elections has simply ignored its mandatory obligations
under North Carolina election law.

This statute was enacted to require election officials to investigate
the quality and security of voting systems before approval,
and only approve those that are safe and secure.
By certifying without a full review of all relevant code,
the Board of Elections has now opened the door for North Carolina
counties to purchase untested and potentially insecure voting equipment."

http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2005_12.php#004237

Zimmerman is young, tough and smart. He IS the man.

As in "Red State NC." Should be "'Red' State NC."

We DON'T KNOW how NC voted in 2004, and ignatzmouse here at DU developed extensive evidence that both the presidential and senate votes were fiddled, if not flipped over. (Bush got a 15% advantage in electronic vs. paper ballot voting, as I recall.)

NC MAY have gone for Bush anyway. (We'll never know, until the perps are caught.) But that 15% advantage helped to pad Bush's popular majority (as seemed to occur in many other places, including "blue" states, where Kerry won but by less than predicted numbers.) And I'm pretty convinced that the NC Senate election was flipped over.

True patriots!

been answered already, but what is the Electronic Frontier Foundation and how long have they been involved in voting machine issues? Anybody know?

from the about eff http://www.eff.org

From the Internet to the iPod, technologies of freedom are transforming our society and empowering us as speakers, citizens, creators, and consumers. These technologies are increasingly under attack, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is the first line of defense, protecting our civil liberties in the networked world. EFF broke new ground when it was founded in 1990—well before the Internet was on most people's radar—and continues to confront cutting-edge issues defending free speech, privacy, innovation, and consumer rights today. From the beginning, EFF has championed the public interest in every critical battle affecting digital rights.

And they've got a catchy short url too!

this looks like something I want to support. We have so few rights as consumers. I really admire this group for stepping into the fray in North Carolina. Clearly they realize what it will take to make the sleezaballs at Diebold squirm. Gives me a little hope. Certainly we can't depend on the Justice Dept or our elected representatives to look after consumers (ie. the Peoples) interests.