EFF Lawsuit (Spring, 1991)
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On May 1, 1991, the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a civil suit against
the United States Secret Service and others involved in the Steve Jackson Games
raid of last spring. According to EFF Staff Counsel Mike Godwin, Jackson was
an absolutely innocent man to whom a grave injustice has been done.  Jackson's
business was nearly driven to bankruptcy, a manuscript and several computers
were taken, and private electronic mail was gone through.

When asked how important it was that Jackson not be considered a hacker, Godwin
replied, "First, the rights we argue in this case apply to hackers and
non-hackers alike, so it's not as if we were seeking special treatment under
the law for hackers. Everybody uses computers now, so the rights issues raised
by computer searches and seizures affects everyone. Second, the facts of
Steve's case show how muddy the government's distinctions between hacker and
non-hacker, and between criminal and non-criminal, have been. Steve Jackson was
never the target of a criminal investigation, yet at least one Secret Service
agent told him that his GURPS Cyberpunk book was a handbook for computer crime."

Godwin said the interests that Jackson and the EFF want to protect "derive
directly from well-understood Constitutional principles."

We're glad to see groups like the EFF emerge and start fighting back. We
encourage support for their efforts. It's going to take a lot of awareness and
vigilance on everyone's part to keep these injustices from occurring again and
again.