Embattled Diebold withdraws from North Carolina
In a classic case of "if we don't play my way I'm taking my toys and going home," electronic voting machine manufacturer Diebold has announced that it will no longer do business in North Carolina because the state refused to grant an exception that would let Diebold keep its source code secret. After more voting machine blunders in 2004 (little things, like how it was discovered that even monkeys can hack Diebold gear), North Carolina passed a law that requires e-voting vendors to place their source codes in escrow as a precaution against future irregularities, meaning that the state is not even asking Diebold to reveal its code publicly. Nonetheless, Diebold claims that because their machines contain some Microsoft software, they don't have to right to release the code. Okay folks, which explanation sounds more reasonable: A. Diebold is willing to lose an entire state's worth of business in order to protect Microsoft or themselves on the off-chance of a successful lawsuit or B. Diebold is petrified that their code is so full of security flaws, and other "issues" that should it ever be scrutinized, the company would most likely go out of business? Now before you answer, remember once again that this is Diebold we're talking about here.
