SJ Games vs. the Secret Service 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 cant 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 companys 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 doesnt 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 werent 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 Loyds 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 companys 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. Its 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 454 Shotwell St., San Francisco, CA 94110.) 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 also formed in Texas: EFF-Austin and Electronic Frontiers Houston, which have since merged to become Electronic Frontiers Texas. 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 attorneys 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. Case Documents The affidavit under which the Secret Service obtained its warrant to raid SJ Games. (This was first made public in issue 2.11 of the Computer Underground Digest, which we have reproduced here in its entirety to recognize the work of the CuD editors.) The complaint filed by SJ Games against the Secret Service. The final judges decision in the case. The Fifth Circuit opinion on the interception question. Articles and Commentary on Privacy, Search and Seizure, Etc. Bruce Sterlings Speech to the High Technology Crime Investigation Association (Lake Tahoe, November, 1994). Sterling tells the cops not to be pawns . . . Chilling Effect of BBS Raids on Electronic Speech. An example of self-censorship by a sysop group afraid of retaliation. Crime and Puzzlement (John Perry Barlow). The seminal article that launched the modern electronic civil liberties movement. CyberLaw Report on the SJ Games Case (Jonathan Rosenoer). The relevant issue of CyberLaw. Formulating A Company Policy on Access to and Use and Disclosure of Electronic Mail on Company Computer Systems (David R. Johnson and John Podesta) Practical Privacy Protection (Unless Congress Prohibits It) (Jim Warren). Electronic mail, cryptography and privacy. Press releases issued by SJ Games and the EFF after their victory in court. Steve Jackson Games v. U.S. Secret Service (Peter D. Kennedy). Analysis and discussion of the case, by one of the attorneys who won it. The Constitution in Cyberspace (Laurence H. Tribe). A noted legal scholar calls for explicit Constitutional protection for electronic speech and writing. The Top Ten False Facts About The Secret Service Raid (Steve Jackson). A lot of things that the media knows, that arent so . . . The EFFs ten-year-later recap of the story. Computer Law Texas Penal Code provisions regarding computer crime. Updated 1994 . . . Articles and Commentary on Censorship and Freedom of the Press Mike Godwins speech against Usenet censorship at Carnegie-Mellon University. Other Sources The Electronic Frontier Foundation Computer Underground Digest While working at Metagaming Concepts, Jackson developed Monsters! Monsters! (ca1976) based on a design by Ken St. Andre related to his Tunnels & Trolls role-playing game, and Godsfire (1976), a 3D space conquest game designed by Lynn Willis.[1]:78 Jacksons first design for the company was Ogre (1977), followed by G.E.V. (1978), which were set in the same futuristic universe that Jackson created.[1]:79 Jackson became interested in Dungeons & Dragons, but found the various-sized dice irritating and the combat rules confusing and unsatisfying, and did not like the lack of tactics, so he designed Melee in response.[1]:79 Jackson joined the SCA to gain a better understanding of combat, but he soon became more interested and started fighting in SCA live-action combat as Vargskol, the Viking-Celt.[1]:79 While designing Melee, Jackson realized this idea could be expanded into a full fantasy role-playing game to compete with D&D, and started working on The Fantasy Trip. While the game was originally scheduled for release in February 1978, the design and development required more work than Jackson had anticipated and the game was not released until March 1980.[1]:79 Howard Thompson, owner of Metagaming, decided to release The Fantasy Trip as four separate books instead of a boxed set, and changed his production methods so that Jackson would not be able to check the final proofs of the game. As a result of these actions, Jackson left Metagaming and founded Steve Jackson Games later that year.[1]:79–80 Jackson bought The Space Gamer from Metagaming, and sold the rights to The Fantasy Trip to Metagaming. However, Thompson sought legal action against SJG for the rights to a short wargame called One-Page Bulge, and the lawsuit was settled with an agreement that was reached on November 26, 1981 which gave Jackson full rights to One-Page Bulge, and to Ogre and G.E.V. (whose ownership was questioned during the legal proceedings).[1]:80 Jackson tried to purchase The Fantasy Trip from Thompson after Metagaming ceased operations in April 1983, but Thompson declined the offered price of $250,000.[1]:81 Jackson designed or co-designed many of the games published by SJ Games, including minigames such as Car Wars (1981) and Illuminati (1983), Undead (1981), and a published version of an informal game played on college campuses, called Killer.[1]:103 Jackson wanted to get into computer gaming software in the early 1980s, but instead wound up licensing gaming rights to Origin Systems, which produced games such as Autoduel (1985) and Ogre (1986).[1]:104 Jackson became interested in designing and publishing a new roleplaying system in the middle of 1981, intending it to be detailed and realistic, logical and well-organized, and adaptable to any setting and any level of play; he announced GURPS in 1983, although the companys magazines delayed development of GURPS until 1984, making the combat system book Man to Man: Fantasy Combat from GURPS (1985) available for Origins 1985, and the full GURPS Basic Set appeared the next year in 1986.[1]:105 In 1995, Sean Punch took over for Jackson as the GURPS line editor.[1]:110 Jackson also designed the strategy card game Munchkin (2001).[1]:112 Legal Actions[edit] On March 1, 1990, the United States Secret Service raided the offices of Steve Jackson Games based on suspicion of illegal hacker activity by game designer Loyd Blankenship, and seized (among other materials and media) his manuscript for GURPS Cyberpunk; when Jackson went to Secret Service headquarters the next day to retrieve his book drafts, he was told that GURPS Cyberpunk was a handbook for computer crime, despite his protestations that it was just a game. SJG filed a successful lawsuit against the government, which went to trial in 1993 as Steve Jackson Games, Inc. v. United States Secret Service, which was made possible through the newly created civil-rights organization Electronic Frontier Foundation.[1]:108–109 Jackson is often mistaken for Steve Jackson, a British gamebook and video game writer who co-founded Games Workshop. The confusion is exacerbated by the fact that while the UK Jackson was co-creator of the Fighting Fantasy gamebook series, the US Jackson also wrote three books in this series (Scorpion Swamp, Demons of the Deep, and Robot Commando), and the books did not acknowledge that this was a different Steve Jackson.[2]
Posted on: Mon, 01 Dec 2014 00:28:58 +0000
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