| From: | "M. Sean Martinez" <ElBandit@***.COM> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | SJG vs the SS (Was Re: [OT] Thought this was hallarious) |
| Date: | Thu, 15 Oct 1998 15:46:40 EDT |
I pulled the information about Steve Jackson Games from the company site,
since we all know how well updated it is <g> (Just had to make a stab at
FASA's website)
They even have an extensive copy of all the documents involved at
http://www.sjgames.com/SS/
Enjoy!
-Bandit
On March 1 1990, the offices of Steve Jackson Games, in Austin, Texas, were
raided by the U.S. Secret Service as part of a nationwide investigation of
data piracy. The initial news stories simply reported that the Secret Service
had raided a suspected ring of hackers. Gradually, the true story emerged.
More than three years later, a federal court awarded damages and attorneys'
fees to the game company, ruling that the raid had been careless, illegal, and
completely unjustified. Electronic civil-liberties advocates hailed the case
as a landmark. It was the first step toward establishing that online speech IS
speech, and entitled to Constitutional protection . . . and, specifically,
that law-enforcement agents can't seize and hold a BBS with impunity.
The Raid
On the morning of March 1, without warning, a force of armed Secret Service
agents - accompanied by Austin police and at least one civilian "expert" from
the phone company - occupied the offices of Steve Jackson Games and began to
search for computer equipment. The home of Loyd Blankenship, the writer of
GURPS Cyberpunk, was also raided. A large amount of equipment was seized,
including four computers, two laser printers, some loose hard disks and a
great deal of assorted hardware. One of the computers was the one running the
Illuminati BBS.
The only computers taken were those with GURPS Cyberpunk files; other systems
were left in place. In their diligent search for evidence, the agents also cut
off locks, forced open footlockers, tore up dozens of boxes in the warehouse,
and bent two of the office letter openers attempting to pick the lock on a
file cabinet.
The next day, accompanied by an attorney, Steve Jackson visited the Austin
offices of the Secret Service. He had been promised that he could make copies
of the company's files. As it turned out, he was only allowed to copy a few
files, and only from one system. Still missing were all the current text files
and hard copy for this book, as well as the files for the Illuminati BBS with
their extensive playtest comments.
In the course of that visit, it became clear that the investigating agents
considered GURPS Cyberpunk to be "a handbook for computer crime." They seemed
to make no distinction between a discussion of futuristic credit fraud, using
equipment that doesn't exist, and modern real-life credit card abuse. A
repeated comment by the agents was "This is real."
Over the next few weeks, the Secret Service repeatedly assured the SJ Games
attorney that complete copies of the files would be returned "tomorrow." But
these promises weren't kept; the book was reconstructed from old backups,
playtest copies, notes and memories.
On March 26, almost four weeks after the raid, some (but not all) of the files
were returned. It was June 21, nearly four months later, when most (but not
all) of the hardware was returned. The Secret Service kept one company hard
disk, all Loyd's personal equipment and files, the printouts of GURPS
Cyberpunk, and several other things.
The raid, and especially the confiscation of the game manuscript, caused a
catastrophic interruption of the company's business. SJ Games very nearly
closed its doors. It survived only by laying off half its employees, and it
was years before it could be said to have "recovered."
Why was SJ Games raided? That was a mystery until October 21, 1990, when the
company finally received a copy of the Secret Service warrant affidavit - at
their request, it had been sealed. And the answer was . . . guilt by remote
association.
While reality-checking the book, Loyd Blankenship corresponded with a variety
of people, from computer security experts to self-confessed computer crackers.
From his home, he ran a legal BBS which discussed the "computer underground,"
and he knew many of its members. That was enough to put him on a federal List
of Dangerous Hoodlums! The affidavit on which SJ Games were raided was
unbelievably flimsy . . . Loyd Blankenship was suspect because he ran a
technologically literate and politically irreverent BBS, because he wrote
about hacking, and because he received and re-posted a copy of the /Phrack
newsletter. The company was raided simply because Loyd worked there and used
its (entirely different) BBS!
As for GURPS Cyberpunk, it had merely been a target of opportunity . . .
something "suspicious" that the agents picked up at the scene. The Secret
Service allowed SJ Games (and the public) to believe, for months, that the
book had been the target of the raid.
The one bright spot in this whole affair was the creation of the Electronic
Frontier Foundation. In mid-1990, Mitch Kapor, John Barlow and John Gilmore
formed the EFF to address this and similar outrages. It's a nonprofit
organization dedicated to preserving the Constitutional rights of computer
users. (For more information, look at the EFF web site, or write them at 1001
G Street, N.W., Suite 950 East, Washington, DC 20001.) The EFF provided the
financial backing that made it possible for SJ Games and four Illuminati users
to file suit against the Secret Service.
Two active electronic-civil-liberties groups have also formed in Texas: EFF-
Austin and Electronic Frontiers Houston.
And science fiction writer Bruce Sterling turned his hand to journalism and
wrote The Hacker Crackdown about this and other cases where the law collided
with technology. A few months after it was published in hardback, he released
it to the Net, and you can read it online.
In early 1993, the case finally came to trial. SJ Games was represented by the
Austin firm of George, Donaldson & Ford. The lead counsel was Pete Kennedy.
And we won. The judge gave the Secret Service a tongue-lashing and ruled for
SJ Games on two out of the three counts, and awarded over $50,000 in damages,
plus over $250,000 in attorney's fees. In October 1994, the Fifth Circuit
turned down SJ Games' appeal of the last (interception) count . . . meaning
that right now, in the Fifth Circuit, it is not "interception" of your e-mail
messages when law enforcement officials walk out the door with the computer
holding them.
