bhv@ddsw1.MCS.COM (Bronis Vidugiris) (05/09/91)
Steve Jackson Games, a well respected publisher of fantasy games, is suing the U.S. Secret Service and others for damages resulting from an allegedly unlawful search and seizure raid in March of 1990. The story of Steve Jacksons Games (SJG) has many facets. On the human level, it is a story of how a small but well respected company, the multiple winner of the Game Manufacturers' Association 'Origins Award', was almost driven into bankruptcy by the actions of the Secret Service, in spite of never being accused or investigated for any wrongdoing. On a broader level, it is a story of constitutional law and the need for protection for the press, both traditional and electronic. The SJG case also illustrates the importance of the electronic communication media to the current practices of publishers of traditional printed media and in everyday life and business in the USA today. According to the court briefs from the 'Electronic Frontier Foundation', an organization dedicated to protecting electronic media which is assisting Steve Jackson's lawsuit, SJG games troubles began when an employee was suspected of illegally possessing information about the 911 emergency phone system. A warrant was obtained for the search of SJG, even though there was no evidence given to implicate the company of any wrongdoing, and the company itself was not under investigation. Furthermore, the warrant request was itself 'sealed' for 7 months after the search at the request of the government, and because of this sealing was not made available to Steve Jackson's attorneys until long after the search and seizure. When it was made available, the request was found to omit and falsify important revelant information, such as the fact that Steve Jackson games was engaged in publishing. This resulted in the judge not being able to appropriately consider SJG's rights under the law - publishers are supposed to, by act of Congress, have very broad protection against search and seizure. Other important information that was misleading was the inflated value placed on the 911 text that was the original justification for the warrant - in the 911 trial, Assistant Attorney General William J Cook, one of the co-defendants of the suit, was to acknowledge that the actual value was less than $5000, rather than the $79,000 originally stated. But more important than these legal details was the fact that this warrant was very broad - unconstitutionaly broad, according to Steve Jackson's attorneys. It was so broad that it enabled the Secret Service to seize the computers, mail, private correspondence, financial projections, contracts and the only drafts of a book that was scheduled to be published by SJG. Now, warrants are not, according to US constitutional law, supposed to be that broad. A warrant is supposed to specify the specific item to be seized, and not to be used for 'fishing' expeditions. Using this broad warrant, the Secret Service seized, in addition to the items mentioned above, all the electronic and printed copies of the book, 'GURPS Cyberpunk' one week before they were to be sent to the printer. The printed copies of this original draft have never been returned, in spite of the fact that it has no direct bearing on the 911 case. The only connection of this book to the 911 case is that it deals, in a fictional manner, with the concept of computers and 'hacking'. In May, two months after the seizure, after repeated false reassurances that the seized items would be returned 'within days', Steve Jackson wrote to Senators Gramm and Bentsen, and Congressmen Pickle, requesting their assistance in the return of their seized equipment and the 'GURPS Cyberpunk' book text. On June 21, the Secret Service returned some, but not all, of the seized hardware and data. They did not return the printed drafts of 'GURPS' - and never have. The effect of this seizure was to drive Steve Jackson Games nearly into bankruptcy. Fortunately they were able to reconstruct the text of the GURPS book from old drafts. In fact, this book has been published, and has been nominated for another 'Origins' award. But the unavoidable delay of almost two months in its publication, when it was scheduled to be printed in a week, seriously impacted the contracts and plans for the marketing of the book. The diversion of resources from other planned projects, and the associated legal fees in the unsuccessful attempts to recover the book and other materials was also expensive. As a result of these costs, SJG was forced to lay off 8 of its 17 employees. Other issues, though perhaps not as immediately harmful to SJG as the seizure of the GURPS drafts, are related to the seizure of Steve Jackson's electronic 'bulletin board' system - both the hardware and the data on it, and other electronic data. This system was an important part of Steve Jackson's everyday operations. Among its many functions were the collection of reports from users and testers of their games, pointing out problems and inconsistencies in the game rules and suggesting improvements, public relations, customer Service, and private 'electronic-mail' exchanges. Many of the suggestions for improvement were lost in the seizure. The status of electronic data in general is also an important issue in this case - Steve Jackson games uses word processors heavily, as do most publishers nowadays. Unfortunately, the legal status of the files stored on the word processors is not as clear as the legal status of the printed copies of those files. I hope that Steve Jackson games gains the redress it deserves for these excessive actions on the part of the US Secret Service and associated individuals. I also sincerely hope that the courts will see fit to provide the same protections to electronic media as they do to printed ones. Electronic data storage is becoming a way of life in most publishing companies - it serves exactly the same function as the printed copies used to - and it deserves the same protection under the law.