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Steve Jackson Games, Inc. v. United States Secret Service, 36 F.3d 457 (1994), sprang from a raid by the United States Secret Service on the Austin headquarters of Steve Jackson Games in 1990. This raid is often incorrectly attributed to Operation Sundevil, a nation-wide crackdown on ‘illegal computer hacking activities’, although SJ Games and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) claim otherwise.[1]
Steve Jackson Games was raided ostensibly because Loyd Blankenship, who was writing the role playing game supplement GURPS Cyberpunk for the company, was a target of a crackdown. Blankenship, known in hacking circles as The Mentor, was a former member of the Legion of Doom hacker group. He had run a BBS from his home called The Phoenix Project, which had helped distribute the popular underground ezine Phrack. In 1989 it published the contents of a text file, stolen from BellSouth, containing information about the E911 emergency response system. The file only contained administrative contact information, and Bell South later had to admit in court that they sold copies to the public for $13. However, the government agents feared that the stolen document could be used to teach crackers how to compromise the E911 system (a claim that is disputed due to the non-technical nature of the document), and Bell South claimed that the dissemination of the data caused thousands of dollars in monetary damages.
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Trial
In 1993, Steve Jackson Games vs. The Secret Service finally came to trial. Steve Jackson Games was represented by the Austin firm of George, Donaldson & Ford. The lead counsel was Pete Kennedy. Steve Jackson Games won two out of the three counts. Steve Jackson Games was awarded US$50,000 in damages and US$250,000 in attorney's fees. The third count dealing with interception of e-mail was turned down in October 1994 by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. The judge also reprimanded the Secret Service, calling their warrant preparation "sloppy", suggesting that they needed "better education" regarding relevant statutes, and finding that they had no basis to suspect Steve Jackson Games of any wrongdoing.
Operation Sundevil, which spanned two years, has a tarnished image due to lack of successful prosecutions and questionable procedures.[2] To this day, the GURPS Cyberpunk book lists "Unsolicited Comments: The United States Secret Service" on its credits page.[3]
References
- ^ "The Top Ten Media Errors About the SJ Games Raid". Steve Jackson Games. 1994-10-12. http://www.sjgames.com/SS/topten.html.
- ^ Esquibel, Bruce (1994-10-08). ""Operation Sundevil" is finally over for Dr. Ripco". Electronic Frontier Foundation. http://w2.eff.org/legal/cases/SJG/?f=ripco_case_closed.article.txt. Retrieved 2009-03-08.
- ^ Blankenship, Loyd (1990). GURPS Cyberpunk. Steve Jackson Games. ISBN 1-55634-168-7.
See also
- GURPS Cyberpunk
- Electronic Frontier Foundation
- See Bruce Sterling's book The Hacker Crackdown (ISBN 0-553-56370-X) for a detailed account of these events.
External links
- SJ Games vs. the Secret Service from Steve Jackson Games website
- EFF: Steve Jackson Games v. Secret Service Case Archive
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