1 March 1990: U.S. Secret Service Raids Austin's Steve Jackson Games

["Fergie" <fergdawg () netzero net>]

My daily "00:01" entry for tomorrow.

Enjoy.

[snip]

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.

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...

This case resulted in the creation of the EFF.

[snip]

> From the EFF archives:
https://www.eff.org/legal/cases/SJG/

- ferg

--
"Fergie", a.k.a. Paul Ferguson
 Engineering Architecture for the Internet
 fergdawg () netzero net or fergdawg () sbcglobal net
 ferg's tech blog: http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/


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