copyright

Boynton's "The Tyranny of Copyright?"

I searched google and found many articles relating to Boynton's "The Tyranny of Copyright" and the Diebold/Swarthmore incident. On the Why War? website, which is maintained by a non-profit student organization at Swarthmore College, I found various updates and even some Diebold memos. They don't seem to be all that telling, but since the issue involves our election process, I think the public needed to be warned of the faultiness of the machines. On the Why War? website, they state their beliefs that what they are doing is legal, just a form of "electronic civil disobedience." There concern is Diebold who is abusing the "copyright law in an attempt to shut down free speech and democratic process." They view the publication of the documents as "integral to the function of the democratic process." I agree with them because it affects the whole country when the public can't even trust the voting machines. However, copyright laws are very important especially with increasing technology. It is important for an individual's, or groups, work to be protected from piracy, but drawing inspiration from another's work is beneficial to the creative process.