Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc,rec.games.board,comp.org.eff.talk From: [m--mo--c] at [eff.org] (Mike Godwin) Subject: Re: SJG wins lawsuit vs SS! Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1993 05:26:41 GMT eff.187: Steve Jackson and EFF file suit against the Secret Service eff.187.430: Mike Godwin (mnemonic) Sun 14 Mar 93 14:32 NEWSFLASH! STEVE JACKSON GAMES WINS LAWSUIT AGAINST U.S. SECRET SERVICE A games publisher has won a lawsuit against the U.S. Secret Service and the federal government in a groundbreaking case involving computer publications and electronic-mail privacy. In a decision announced Friday, March 12, Judge Sparks of the federal district court for the Western District of Texas announced that the case of Steve Jackson Games et al. versus the U.S. Secret Service and the United States Government has been decided for the plaintiffs. Judge Sparks awarded more than $50,000 in damages to the plaintiffs, citing lost profits for Steve Jackson Games, violations of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, and violations of the Privacy Protection Act of 1980. The judge also stated that plaintiffs would be reimbursed for their attorneys' fees. The judge did not find that Secret Service agents had "intercepted" the electronic communications that were captured when agents seized the Illuminati BBS in an early-morning raid in spring of 1990 as part of a computer-crime investigation. The judge did find, however, that the ECPA had been violated by the agents' seizure of stored electronic communications on the system. Judge Sparks also found that the Secret Service had violated Steve Jackson Games's rights as a publisher under the Privacy Protection Act of 1980, a federal law designed to limit the ability of law-enforcement agents to engage in searches and seizures of publishers. Mike Godwin, legal services counsel for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which has underwritten and supported the case since it was filed in 1991, said he is pleased with the decision. "This case is a major step forward in protecting the rights of those who use computers to send private mail to each other or who use computers to create and disseminate publications." "Judge Sparks has made it eminently clear that the Secret Service acted irresponsibly," Godwin said. "This case should send a message to law-enforcement groups everywhere that they can't ignore the rights of those who communicate by computer." Press can contact Mike Godwin at 617-576-4510, or by pager at 1-800-SKYPAGE, 595-0535. -- Mike Godwin, |"I'm waiting for the one-man revolution [m--mo--c] at [eff.org]| The only one that's coming." (617) 576-4510 | EFF, Cambridge | --Robert Frost