IP: Who is next -- : Customs Svc busts hobby electronics re "surreptitous intercept devs"

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

> Date: Sat, 8 Jan 2000 11:24:35 -0800
> To: Recipient List Suppressed:;;;;Recipient.List.Suppressed:;@well.com;;;;;;;;
> From: Jim Warren <jwarren () well com>
> Subject: Customs Svc busts hobby electronics re "surreptitous intercept
>  devs"
>
> http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/01/04/2316228&mode=flat
>
> Posted by emmett on Wednesday January 05, @10:00AM
> from the straight-from-the-horse's-mouth dept.
> On November 10th 1999, Ramsey Electronics of Victor, New York, was raided
> by the United States Customs Service for allegedly manufacturing and
> distributing 'Electronic Surreptitious Intercept Devices' as defined by
> Title 18 USC, Section 2512. We spoke to both Ramsey Electronics President
> John Ramsey and Joel Violanti, the federal prosecutor on the case, to find
> out exactly what happened, and why. (Click below for more.)
>
> The Raid
>
> On the morning of November 10th, radio equipment manufacturer Ramsey
> Electronics was raided by the United States Customs Service by officers
> with a search warrant. In addition to building radio testing equipment,
> Ramsey Electronics is also a well-known vendor of electronic hobby kits
> used by organizations like the Boy Scouts of America. Like an action movie
> drug-bust, agents moved in at 10 a.m. to search and seize over $30,000
> worth of Ramsey Electronics inventory. Company President John Ramsey
> offered this play-by-play of that morning's events:
>
> They had already been here almost an hour when I walked in. I [had been] at
> the bank. When I came back in, I saw my controller, Ed VanVoorhis and his
> face was white as a ghost. There were these two guys wearing suits standing
> on each side of him. He told me that these guys were from the government
> and they were here with a search warrant. Then the agents took over; they
> pretty much bullied me down the hallway and into my office. I went to go
> sit at my desk, and they said 'No. you sit over here,' pointing to a couch
> in my office.
>
> The two of them proceeded to rattle off a lot of mumble jumble like Title
> 18 USC Section 2512 and other numbers, flashing badges and being
> surrealistically intimidating. I'm looking at my accountant. I have never
> seem him like this. The [agents] are verbally batting me back and forth,
> and I'm like, 'Hey, what's going on?' They proceeded to tell me that they
> were executing a search warrant to find goods that were in violation of
> section 2512, and they shove this four or five page search warrant in my
> face.
>
> They said that they were here to find stuff that violated section 2512 and
> I said, 'Like our wireless FM mic kits?' The one [agent] gave me his card,
> and I noticed that he was from Buffalo, an hour and a half away. I said,
> 'you two guys came all the way here from Buffalo?' and he said, 'No.
> There's seven of us.'
>
> Then he said, 'If you don't cooperate with us, we'll shut you down. We'll
> lock the doors, send all the employees home, we'll go through all of your
> inventory, records, customer lists and computers. We'll go through your
> computers bit-by-bit. We have experts that do that, and we don't care if it
> takes months.' I was escorted out to the production and shipping areas,
> which they had pretty much commandeered. All the doors had 8 1/2 x 11
> pieces of paper taped on them with a large handwritten letter on them -
> like A, B and C. There was a fellow wearing a photographers vest snapping
> pictures everywhere; we later counted 5 empty film cans in the trash!
>
> About five hours after they arrived, they staged all of the official US
> government boxes near the back loading dock. They took a huge van and
> backed it up to my loading dock, and proceeded to load it with my goods. I
> walked over to the boxes to verify what they were taking; obviously, they
> would want me to confirm their counts and amounts.
>
> I was stunned! They wouldn't let me see what was in the boxes! I have no
> idea what they took. I went over to look in them, and they told me to get
> away. They told me they'd give me an inventory sheet. I said, 'That's my
> stuff and I should be able to check it.' Special Agent Craig Healy turned
> to me and said 'You can trust us.'
>
> After they had finished loading the van, they presented me with the
> inventory sheet, a simple handwritten sheet with no names, titles or
> signatures. There's nothing indicating who it was from on it. I looked at
> one of the sheets quickly and noticed the very first part number wasn't one
> of ours and the second item number listed was for a kit that had no
> function or bearing on their search warrant. They agreed to fish those two
> items out of the van and sure enough, neither item was correct. One of them
> said words to the effect of, 'gee, we must have picked up the wrong box
> from your shelf.' They corrected their mistakes, asked for a recommendation
> for a good local restaurant and were on their way...
>
> After they left, employees told me that they surrounded the building,
> watching all the entrances while they entered along with a New York state
> trooper for back-up. This show of force, while maybe necessary for raiding
> an underground drug lab, was hardly necessary. Our building is located in a
> typical suburban office park and our showroom is open to all.
>
> What's incredible is that two of the agents were here a week earlier,
> pretending to be customers! This 'recon' obviously would have shown them
> that no force would be needed, let alone seven agents on a three hour
> travel time round trip. What's especially aggravating was that during the
> earlier visit they tried to lead one of my technical people into saying
> something they wanted to hear.
>
> Questions were posed like 'if we placed one of these little kits across the
> street in that building - for instance - could we hear it over here?' Our
> technician assured them that although the units work great for model
> rockets, toy cars and such, they really weren't suited for transmitting out
> of a building. Steel construction, reinforcing rod and the like limits
> range. They then asked if they could boost the power to do the job. Our
> fellow once again reiterated that the kits were hobby stuff and that what
> they wanted couldn't be found here. After the raid, my technician told me
> that they were here last week, playing 'customer' and how they had left
> unsatisfied.
>
> So, where do we sit now? I have a Federal Small Business Innovation Grant
> underway that uses our little FM-5 wireless mike to transmit muscle sensor
> data to a nearby computer system. The doctors who are partners in the grant
> specified the FM-5 due to its small size; present technology uses a six
> pound transmitter that straps to the back of a child. Tough to do on a
> forty pound kid. The research is on walking disorders on crippled kids.
>
> Now what? Shall we violate their interpretation of the law and work with
> the doctors and the SBIR people? How about all the schools, scout troops
> and hobbyists who use our kits? We're not talking big money here. The kits
> amount to a small portion of our business, but what will these folks do now?
>
> I have personally received mail from many who say that they are now
> graduate engineers as a direct result of one of our little kits sparking
> their interest in electronics. I guess the mobsters, terrorists and
> kidnappers don't feel the need to write, huh?
>
> The Aftermath - and the Feds
>
> The raid on Ramsey Electronics has caused quite a stir online, in Ramsey's
> own discussion forum as well as the submission queue here at Slashdot.
> People have gotten into intense discussions about freedom of information,
> freedom of speech, and the importance of using modern electronics in the
> field of education. At first glance, the raid may look like a cavalcade of
> constitutional rights issues, but Joel Violanti, the attorney prosecuting
> this case for the United States Customs Service, disagrees. Here's his take
> on the Ramsey raid:
>
> Slashdot:
> What happened, Joel?
>
> Violanti:
> On November 10th, there were approximately 13 search warrants issued in New
> York City and Rochester, New York and Austin, Texas against companies
> believed to be in the business of selling electronic surreptitious
> intercept devices, in violation of federal law. Ramsey Electronics was one
> of those companies.
>
> Slashdot:
> Apparently, Ramsey's been selling this equipment for a very long time. Why
> did the raid occur last year?
>
> Violanti:
> If something's illegal, it's illegal.
>
> Slashdot:
> Is there any reason that Ramsey Electronics wasn't raided earlier?
>
> Violanti:
> Sometimes you can only act upon things when you're informed of them.
> There's a task force in New York City that's been investigating this for a
> few years now. They've been shutting down companies or preventing companies
> from selling these things, and they've been taking several criminal pleas
> because of this. These people have been pleading guilty in Federal court.
> San Francisco now has a task force. Other cities are joining in, trying to
> stop the manufacture and distribution of this equipment.
>
> Slashdot:
> Where does it stop? It seems like I could build something like this on my
> own, and then be just as guilty.
>
> Violanti:
> The statute prohibits people from manufacturing and distributing these
> devices, knowing they've been shipped through the mail.
>
> Slashdot:
> Where does the government draw the line at surreptitious use, as opposed to
> educational use?
>
> Violanti:
> I don't know how to answer that. Use is use. If you place a device in a
> clock, and you put that clock on the wall, and you monitor someone's
> conversation that you're not a part of, I think that surreptitious use
> speaks for itself. Clock, smoke detector, or picture frame, you're taking
> that device out of its primary use in order to secretly intercept someone
> else's conversation. We're not necessarily looking for kits or components.
> We're looking for items like clocks, smoke detectors and picture frames.
>
> Mr. Violanti made it clear that the US Customs Service was not in any way
> attempting to 'crack down' on the hobbyist or educational use of electronic
> devices. The emphasis remains on specific items that fall under the
> category of surreptitious use. The specific items the feds were apparently
> looking for in the Ramsey raid were things like microphones and video
> cameras mounted inside smoke detectors or alarm clocks, effectively
> masquerading as something they weren't.
>
> Despite Mr. Violanti's reasuurances, the Ramsey Electronics raid still
> leaves questions for innocent geeks who like to tinker with assorted
> electronic parts. What if, for instance, you build an alarm clock that will
> sense motion when it goes off, and will keep going off if it doesn't sense
> you getting out of bed and stops when you do? What if you rig your smoke
> detector with a video or audio system so that rescue workers can make sure
> your family gets out of your house safely in the event of a fire?
> There are many uses for 'surveillance technology' other than listening in
> on boring conversations.
>
> But even if you made these devices with the most innocent purposes in mind,
> and sold them through the U.S. Mail to people as innocent as yourself, it
> looks like the Federal Government would feel justified in taking them away
> from you just in case one of your customers decided to use one of your
> gadgets to break the law in some way.
>
> It's a scary thought, isn't it?
>
>
>
>
> ====
>
>
>
> http://www.2600.com/news/1999/1218.html
>
> FEDS RAID ELECTRONIC HOBBY VENDORS
> 12/18/99
> 2600 has learned that several small electronic hobbyist vendors were
> recently raided by federal agents brandishing semiautomatic weapons. News
> of these raids has been kept out of the media and many of those involved
> fear retribution if they openly discuss the case. Until now, these
> companies had operated for years selling harmless educational electronic
> kits (like wireless microphones) to students, hobbyists, ham radio
> operators, and hackers. Now their inventories are being seized at
> gunpoint--and their owners could be facing bankruptcy and prison time.
>
> The U.S. Dept. of Justice is apparently re-interpreting federal wiretapping
> and smuggling laws to include small hobby radio transmitters. Even
> possessing so-called "Mr. Microphone" type toys can now put hobbyists at
> risk of looking down the barrel of a federal agent's loaded gun, a felony
> conviction, federal prison time, loss of property, and legal fees into the
> tens of thousands of dollars.
>
> Ramsey Electronics and Super Circuits are just two of the companies
> recently raided at gunpoint. Both have good and longstanding reputations
> for selling inexpensive, quality educational kits and components to
> electronics hobbyists for many years through ads in electronic hobby
> magazines and their websites.
> A high-ranking Justice Dept. official told one of the business owners the
> orders for these raids are politically motivated and originated from a very
> high level in the Clinton administration as a result of the Linda Tripp
> wiretapping case. "They just need convictions," the official said.
>
> Earlier this year the Justice Dept. indicted Bill Cheek, the well-known and
> loved author of books on radio scanner modifications and Monitoring Times
> column writer. Bill was selling very simple "data-slicer" circuits (made
> from parts available at any Radio Shack) that could be used with a PC and a
> scanner to monitor radio data transmissions--including unencrypted police
> mobile data terminal (MDT) transmissions. Even after Bill had been
> diagnosed with terminal cancer, the Federal government refused to back off,
> even issuing a summons to court on the same day he was to begin
> chemotherapy.
>
> In 1995 2600's BernieS was locked up in five different maximum-security
> prisons over 14 months by the Secret Service for possessing his laptop
> computer, his software, and ordinary electronic parts available at Radio
> Shack. He had been distributing parts, software, books, and pamphlets about
> cellular and coin telephones. The Justice Department's final investigation
> report stated "There were no victims in the offense."
>
> This is a clear pattern of harassment and abuse of power by our Federal
> government against people teaching others about electronic communications.
> It appears our government doesn't want people to know this information.
> 2600 strongly feels this knowledge is important for people to have, and
> will continue spreading it at every opportunity. Write and call your
> legislators to complain about this injustice. You could be next!
>
>
>
> ====
>
> Presumably, the feds have not raided the manufacturers of surveillance
> equipment and 'bugs' that are sold (and shipped through the mail) to
> federal officials for *their* covert use -- as the CALEA says -- under
> court order "or when otherwise authorized" [by someone].  (CALEA is the
> Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act, that authorizes half a
> billion tax-dollars to make nation's phones undetectably wiretap-ready.)
>
> --jim; Jim Warren
> columnist, activist, hedonist wannabe'; jwarren () well com
> 345 Swett Rd, Woodside CA 94062; 650-851-7075; fax-for-the-quaint/650-851-2814
>
> [self-inflating puff: Hugh Hefner First-Amendment Award, Playboy Foundation;
> Electronic Frontier Foundation Pioneer Award (in its first year);
> James Madison Freedom-of-Information Award, Soc.of Prof.Journalists-Nor.Calif
> founded InfoWorld; the Computers, Freedom & Privacy Conferences; etc etc etc.]