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Secret Service is Found Guilty in Steve Jackson Ca
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? ? ( ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 4 ) ? e ? ? FROM WALL STREET JOURNAL
TUESDAY, 16 MARCH 1993
"SECRET SERVICE HELD GUILTY OF VIOLATING COMPUTER PRIVACY"
"A federal court in Austin, Texas, ruled that the U.S. Secret Service violated privacy laws in seizg an electronic bulletin board, electronic mail and computer records from a computer games maker the years ago.
Federal Judge Sam Sparks also ruled that the Secret Service, contrary to government denials, had re, disclosed and erased messages on the bulletin board it seized, in violation of the Electronic Comuications Privacy Act.
"Though the ruling is not as clear as we'd have liked, it's the first opinion I know of that holds at electronic communications on a bulletin board are protected by the federal Privacy Protection Ac" said Peter Kennedy, attorney for Steve Jackson Games, of Austin, the plaintiff in the case. JustceDepartment attorneys couldn't immediately be reached for comment.
The case, which provoked fierce debate over how widely the government can case its net in combatingomputer crime, led to the founding of a computer-user's rights group, the Electronic Frontier Foundton, which sponsored the suit against the government. Yesterday, the foundation hailed the verdict This case should send a message to law enforcement groups everywhere that they can't ignore the rght of those who communicate by computer," said Mike Godwin, the foundation's counsel.
In March 1990, the Secret Service was tracking a "911 program" that agents believed computer hackerhad stolen from BellSouth. Agents, saying they suspected that an employee of Steve Jackson's was ivlved, raided the company under a warrant issued by the local U>S. Magistrate. They seized compute euipment, an electronic bulletin board, and files that contained a computer game the company had ben bout to publish.
The Service held onto the property for months, and destroyed some of the files and electronic messas.
In his opinion, Judge Sparks said there was never any basis for suspicion that the company or its oer, Steve Jackson, had broken any laws; and that if agents hadn't been so "sloppy" in their investiaion, they would have realized that the company was a legitimate publisher, entitled to the protectonof the Privacy Protection Act. That act shields files and work records of newspapers, broadcastes ad publishers from government search or seizure.
He awarded Mr. Jackson, his company, and three bulletin board users a total of about $55,000, plus torney's fees."
?p?p?p?pROM WALL STREET JOURNAL
TUESDAY, 16 MARCH 1993
"SECRET SERVICE HELD GUILTY OF VIOLATING COMPUTER PRIVACY"
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