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From: EFF (eff@well.sf.ca.us)
Subject: EFF/SJG Sue Bill Cook, Tim Foley, Secret Service, et. al.
Date: 1 May, 1991

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***  CuD #3.15: File 3 of 3: EFF/SJG SUE COOK, FOLEY ET. AL.     ***
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{The following came in just minutes before we began sending out this
issue of CuD. We reduced the original to just a few lines.  The full
text can be obtained from EFF (eff@well.sf.ca.us) or from the CuD
archives}.

Excerpted From: EFFector Online #1.04  (May 1, 1991)

The following press release was Faxcast to over 1,500 media
organizations and interested parties this afternoon:

EXTENDING THE CONSTITUTION TO AMERICAN CYBERSPACE:

TO ESTABLISH CONSTITUTIONAL PROTECTION FOR ELECTRONIC MEDIA AND TO
OBTAIN REDRESS FOR AN UNLAWFUL SEARCH, SEIZURE, AND PRIOR RESTRAINT
ON PUBLICATION, STEVE JACKSON GAMES AND THE ELECTRONIC FRONTIER
FOUNDATION TODAY FILED A CIVIL SUIT AGAINST THE UNITED STATES SECRET
SERVICE AND OTHERS.

	On March 1, 1990, the United States Secret Service nearly
destroyed Steve Jackson Games (SJG), an award-winning publishing
business in Austin, Texas.
	In an early morning raid with an unlawful and
unconstitutional warrant, agents of the Secret Service conducted a
search of the SJG office.  When they left they took a manuscript
being prepared for publication, private electronic mail, and several
computers, including the hardware and software of the SJG Computer
Bulletin Board System.  Yet Jackson and his business were not only
innocent of any crime, but never suspects in the first place.  The
raid had been staged on the unfounded suspicion that somewhere in
Jackson's office there "might be" a document compromising the
security of the 911 telephone system.
	In the months that followed,
Jackson saw the business he had built up over many years dragged to
the edge of bankruptcy. SJG was a successful and prestigious
publisher of books and other materials used in adventure role-playing
games.  Jackson also operated a computer bulletin board system (BBS)
to communicate with his customers and writers and obtain feedback and
suggestions on new gaming ideas.  The bulletin board was also the
repository of private electronic mail belonging to several of its
users.  This private mail was seized in the raid.  Despite repeated
requests for the return of his manuscripts and equipment, the Secret
Service has refused to comply fully.
	Today, more than a year after that raid, The Electronic
Frontier Foundation, acting with SJG owner Steve Jackson, has filed
a precedent setting civil suit against the
United States Secret Service, Secret Service Agents Timothy Foley and
Barbara Golden, Assistant United States Attorney William Cook, and
Henry Kluepfel.
	"This is the most important case brought to date,"
said EFF general counsel Mike Godwin, "to vindicate the
Constitutional rights of the users of computer-based communications
technology.  It will establish the Constitutional dimension of
electronic expression.  It also will be one of the first cases that
invokes the Electronic Communications and Privacy Act as a shield and
not as a sword -- an act that guarantees users of this digital
medium the same privacy protections enjoyed by those who use the
telephone and the U.S. Mail."

                     (remainder of text deleted)

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