Online Policy Group v. Diebold, Inc.
| Online Policy Group v. Diebold, Inc. | |
|---|---|
| Court | United States District Court for the Northern District of California |
| Full case name | Online Policy Group (OPG), Nelson Chu Pavlosky, and Luke Thomas Smith v. Diebold, Incorporated and Diebold Election Systems, Incorporated |
| Decided | September 30, 2004 |
| Docket nos. | 5:03-cv-04913 |
| Citations | 337 F. Supp. 2d 1195; 72 U.S.P.Q.2d 1200 |
| Court membership | |
| Judge sitting | Jeremy Fogel |
Online Policy Group v. Diebold, Inc., 337 F. Supp. 2d 1195 (N.D. Cal. 2004), was a lawsuit involving an archive of Diebold's (now Premier Election Solutions) internal company e-mails and Diebold's contested copyright claims over them. The Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Stanford Cyberlaw Clinic provided pro bono legal support for the non-profit ISP and the Swarthmore College students, respectively.
United States District Judge Jeremy Fogel ruled that the plaintiffs' publishing of the e-mails was clearly a fair use essentially "because there was no commercial harm and no diminishment of value of the works" in their republication. Additionally Diebold was found to have misrepresented its copyright controls over the work, putting them in violation of section 512(f) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and leaving them liable for court costs and damages. This was the first time 512(f) had been enforced in court, and set a precedent.