EFFector       Vol. 13, No. 2       Mar. 1, 2000       [email protected]

  A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation     ISSN 1062-9424

 IN THE 150th ISSUE OF EFFECTOR (now with over 23,000 subscribers!):

    * 10th Anniversary of USSS Raid on Steve Jackson Games & Illuminati
      BBS
         + Intro
         + Background
         + Links to More Information
    * Call for Nominations: The Ninth Annual International EFF Pioneer
      Awards
         + Intro
         + The Year 2000 Awards
         + How to Nominate Someone
         + Past Pioneers of the Electronic Frontier
         + About EFF
    * Administrivia

  For more information on EFF activities & alerts: http://www.eff.org
    _________________________________________________________________

10th Anniversary of USSS Raid on Steve Jackson Games & Illuminati BBS

 Landmark case established limits to police power in Cyberspace

   Intro

  On March 1, 1990, the United States Secret Service (USSS) nearly
  destroyed Steve Jackson Games (SJG), an award-winning publisher of
  roleplaying games in Austin, Texas.

  Today marks ten years to the day since that fateful search and seizure
  operation, which led to one of the most important precedent-setting
  lawsuits in online history, the Electronic Frontier Foundation-backed
  case of Steve Jackson Games, et al. v. US Secret Service.

  "I'm very glad to see that the EFF is still here with us and and
  fighting the good fight. Back in 1990, [EFF co-founders] Mitch Kapor
  and John Perry Barlow said that this new organization would be in it
  for the long haul. After ten years, I think we can see that this's
  true," remarked Steve Jackson on the anniversary of the infamous raid.
  "The EFF is a permanent part of the civil liberties landscape.
  Technology is changing faster than ever, bringing new opportunities,
  but new hazards to freedom and fairness as well. It's good to know the
  EFF will always be here when it's needed."

   Background

  In an early morning raid with an unlawful and unconstitutional
  warrant, agents of the USSS conducted a search of the SJG office. They
  seized and removed, all in all, 3 computers, 5 hard disks and more
  than 300 floppies of software and data, and a book manuscript being
  prepared for publication. Among this equipment was the hardware and
  software of the SJG-operated Illuminati BBS (bulletin board system).
  The BBS served as a small-scale online service for gamers to
  participate in online discussions and to supply customer feedback to
  SJG. The BBS (today, the Internet service provide Illuminati Online)
  was also the repository of private electronic mail belonging to
  several of its users. This private e-mail was seized in the raid.

  Yet Jackson, his business, and his BBS's users were not only innocent
  of any crime, but never suspects in the first place. The raid had been
  staged on the unfounded (and later proven false) suspicion that
  somewhere in Jackson's office there "might be" a document allegedly
  compromising the security of the 911 telephone system.

  The Secret Service did not return the equipment, though legally
  required to do so and requested to do so many times, until sometime in
  the end of June of that year. When the equipment was returned more
  than three months after the raid, it became clear that someone at the
  USSS inspecting the disks had read and DELETED all of the 162
  electronic mail messages contained on the BBS at the time of the raid.
  Not one of the users of the BBS was even under investigation by the
  Secret Service, and many of the messages had never even been read by
  their intended recipients.

  In the months that followed the raid, Jackson saw the business he had
  built up over many years dragged to the edge of bankruptcy. SJG was a
  successful and prestigious publisher of books and other materials used
  in adventure role-playing games. Jackson had to layoff nearly half of
  his work force. Publication of at least one of his gaming books was
  delayed, resulting in loss of revenues to the company. He was written
  up in Business Week magazine as being a computer criminal. Jackson
  decided to fight back.

  On May 1, 1991, Steve Jackson, the Steve Jackson Games company, and
  three users of the Illuminati BBS, with the help of the Electronic
  Frontier Foundation, filed a civil suit against the United States
  Secret Service and some indivdually named agents thereof, alleging
  that the search warrant used during the raid was insufficient, since
  Steve Jackson Games was a publisher (publishers enjoy special
  protection under the Privacy Protection Act [PPA] of 1980), and that
  the protections against improper surveillance in the Electronic
  Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) had been violated with regard to the
  electronic mail on the system.

  ECPA consists of a series of amendments to the federal Wiretap Act. It
  prohibits law enforcement officers from intentionally intercepting,
  using and/or disclosing the contents of private electronic
  communications without a warrant. The statute offers similar privacy
  protection for communications that are stored "incidental to the
  electronic transmission thereof" (e.g. on the hard drive of a BBS).
  The users of the Illuminati board claimed that their unread e-mail
  required a warrant specifically describing the messages to be
  searched. The Secret Service claimed that no special warrant was
  required under ECPA - in essence asking the court for license to go on
  uncontrolled "fishing expeditions" through citizens' private
  communications, in violation of Fourth Amendment principles. The court
  sided with Jackson and the other plaintiffs, berating USSS Agent Tim
  Foley - on the witness stand - for 15 minutes straight.

  According to Mike Godwin, EFF Senior Policy Fellow, "the Steve Jackson
  Games case was the first case to underscore the intersection between
  civil liberties and the Internet. Our victory in that case sent a
  signal to the law-enforcement community that the days of unregulated
  searches and seizures of computers, and shut-downs of online
  publishers, were over."

  The judge's official decision was announced on March 12, 1993.
  District Judge Sam Sparks awarded more than $50,000 in damages to
  Steve Jackson Games, citing lost profits and violations of the PPA. In
  addition, the judge awarded each BBS-user plaintiff $1,000 under the
  Electronic Communications Privacy Act for the USSS seizure of their
  stored electronic mail. The judge also ruled that plaintiffs would be
  reimbursed for their attorneys' fees. Plaintiffs filed an appeal,
  seeking to hold the USSS liable for "interception" in addition to
  "seizure" of the e-mail, on the grounds that e-mail still "in transit"
  if it has not yet been received by its recipients. This clarifying
  appeal was not successful, as the appellate court held, on a
  technicality, that "in transit" essentially means only "in transit,
  momentarily, across communication wires", not "in transit, by whatever
  medium, between sender and recipient". But the case remains a victory,
  establishing that at the very least, "stored" e-mail cannot be seized,
  examined or destroyed with impunity by law enforcement officers, and
  affirming, by clarifying the meaning of "in transit", that e-mail
  cannot be eavesdropped upon by police as it is being transmitted from
  system to system without a proper warrant.

  "It's hard to imagine, but the raid on Steve Jackson Games took place
  years before the World Wide Web even existed. Ten years may not seem
  like much, but it's an eternity in 'Internet time' The SJG case is
  still cited as the seminal precedent explaining the Electronic
  Communications Privacy Act. It was exciting being a part of it,"
  commented Shari Steele, then Director of Legal Services at EFF when
  the SJG case came to its conclusion. (Steele is presently Co-Director
  of the allied nonproft organization Digital Bridges).

  Godwin added: "The most important factors in our success in the case
  were Steve Jackson's courage and determination, the resolve of Mitch
  Kapor and other EFF backers to go the distance, and a excellent and
  committed legal team."

  Representing the plaintiffs in this suit were Harvey A. Silverglate
  and Sharon L. Beckman of Silverglate & Good (Boston, MA); Eric
  Lieberman and Nick Poser of Rabinowitz, Boudin, Standard, Krinsky &
  Lieberman (New York, NY); and James George, Jr. of Graves, Dougherty,
  Hearon & Moody (Austin, TX).

   Links to More Information

  Steve Jackson Games: http://www.sjgames.com
  Illuminati Online: http://www.io.com
  The Electronic Frontier Foundation: http://www.eff.org
  EFF's SJG Case Archive: http://www.eff.org/pub/Legal/Cases/SJG
  US Secret Service: http://www.treas.gov/usss/

    _________________________________________________________________


Seeking Pioneers of the Electronic Frontier

 Call for Nominations:
 The Ninth Annual International EFF Pioneer Awards

  Please redistribute this notice in appropriate fora.

   Intro

  In every field of human endeavor, there are those dedicated to
  expanding knowledge, freedom, efficiency, and utility. Many of today's
  brightest innovators are working along the electronic frontier. To
  recognize these leaders, the Electronic Frontier Foundation
  established the Pioneer Awards for deserving individuals and
  organizations.

  The Pioneer Awards are international and nominations are open to all.
  The deadline for nominations this year is March 15, 2000 (see
  nomination criteria and instructions below).

   The Year 2000 Awards

  The Ninth Annual EFF Pioneer Awards will be presented in Toronto,
  Canada, at the 10th Conference on Computers, Freedom, and Privacy (see
  http://www.cfp2000.org). The ceremony will be held on the evening of
  April 6, 2000. All nominations will be reviewed by a panel of judges
  chaired by Dave Farber, FCC Chief Technologist and long time EFF
  Boardmember, and chosen for their knowledge of the technical, legal,
  and social issues associated with information technology.

  This year's EFF Pioneer Awards judges are:
    * Herb Brody (Senior Editor, Technology Review)
    * Dave Farber (Chief Technologist, FCC; Boardmember, EFF)
    * Moira Gunn (Host, "Tech Nation", NPR)
    * Larry Irving (CEO, UrbanMagic.com)
    * Tara Lemmey (Executive Director, EFF)
    * Peter G. Neumann (Principal Scientist, SRI Intl. Computer Science
      Lab; Moderator, ACM Risks Forum)
    * Susan H. Nycum (Partner, Baker & McKenzie)
    * Drazen Pantic (NYU Center for War, Peace, & the News Media)
    * Barbara Simons (President, ACM)

   How to Nominate Someone

  There are no specific categories for the EFF Pioneer Awards, but the
  following guidelines apply:
   1. The nominees must have made a substantial contribution to the
      health, growth, accessibility, or freedom of computer-based
      communications.
   2. The contribution may be technical, social, economic, or cultural.
   3. Nominations may be of individuals, systems, or organizations in
      the private or public sectors.
   4. Nominations are open to all, and you may nominate more than one
      recipient. You may nominate yourself or your organization.
   5. All nominations, to be valid, must contain your reasons, however
      brief, for nominating the individual or organization, along with a
      means of contacting the nominee, and your own contact number.
      Anonymous nominations will be allowed, but we prefer to be able to
      contact the nominating parties in the event that we need further
      information.
   6. Every person or organization, with the exception of EFF staff and
      board members, is eligible for an EFF Pioneer Award.
   7. Persons or representatives of organizations receiving an EFF
      Pioneer Award will be invited to attend the ceremony at the
      Foundation's expense.

  You may send as many nominations as you wish, but please use one
  e-mail per nomination. Submit all entries to: [email protected]

  Just tell us:
   1. The name of the nominee;
   2. The phone number or e-mail address at which the nominee can be
      reached; and, most importantly,
   3. Why you feel the nominee deserves the award;

  You may attach supporting documentation in Microsoft Word or other
  standard binary formats.

   Past Pioneers of the Electronic Frontier

  1992: Douglas C. Engelbart, Robert Kahn, Jim Warren, Tom Jennings, and
  Andrzej Smereczynski; 1993: Paul Baran, Vinton Cerf, Ward Christensen,
  Dave Hughes and the USENET software developers, represented by the
  software's originators Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis; 1994: Ivan
  Sutherland, Whitfield Diffie and Martin Hellman, Murray Turoff and
  Starr Roxanne Hiltz, Lee Felsenstein, Bill Atkinson, and the WELL;
  1995: Philip Zimmermann, Anita Borg, and Willis Ware; 1996: Robert
  Metcalfe, Peter Neumann, Shabbir Safdar and Matthew Blaze; 1997: Marc
  Rotenberg, Johan "Julf" Helsingius, and (special honorees) Hedy Lamarr
  and George Antheil; 1998: Richard Stallman, Linus Torvalds, and
  Barbara Simons; 1999: Jon Postel, Drazen Pantic, and Simon Davies.

  See http://www.eff.org/awards for further information.

   About EFF

  The Electronic Frontier Foundation (http://www.eff.org) is a global
  nonprofit organization linking technical architectures with legal
  frameworks to support the rights of individuals in an open society.
  Founded in 1990, EFF actively encourages and challenges industry and
  government to support free expression, privacy, and openness in the
  information society. EFF is a member-supported organization and
  maintains one of the most-linked-to Web sites in the world.

    _________________________________________________________________

                                Administrivia

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