From: fig@eff.org (Cliff Figallo)
Subject: Steve Jackson Games trial
Summary: The first day
Originator: fig@eff.org
Organization: The Electronic Frontier Foundation
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 17:13:49 GMT


A report from EFF staff counsel Shari Steele on the first day of the
Steve Jackson Games trial in Austin, Texas.
*******************************

Hi everyone.
The Steve Jackson Games case finally got underway a little after 1:00 pm
today.  There were settlement efforts up until the end, but it turned out
the attorneys for the government could not get approval from DC for the
terms necessary.  Jim George and Pete Kennedy did a terrific job of
representing our plaintiffs in the case.  First they sequestered all
witnesses so they couldn't hear each others' stories in attempts to make
them match.  Then they called Tim Foley (Secret Service) as the first
witness.  They asked him lots of questions about his knowledge at the time
of the raid.  He testified that he did not know whether Phrack, with the
evil E-911 document, had been sent to SJG.  He also said that he knew that
e-mail was on the menu of the BBS, implying that there was e-mail on the
system at the time of the seizure (although he denied actually knowing if
there was e-mail on the system.  He denied ever making the statement that
GURPS Cyberpunk was a handbook for computer crime.  He wouldn't give Steve
copies of anything from the machine that ran the BBS because he was afraid
it might have been "booby-trapped."  He also didn't know Congress had
passed any laws giving special protection during searches to publishers.

They next called Larry Coutorie, police officer at the University of Texas.
 The original affidavit filed by Foley to support the search warrant stated
that Coutorie provided the Secret Service with Blankenship's (SJG employee
suspected of evil-doing) address and place of business.  Coutorie insisted
that he didn't remember doing that, and agreed with Pete Kennedy as he
proved that he couldn't have known anything about Blankenship to pass on. 
It was a good moment!

Barbara Golden, Secret Service in charge of search onsite (Foley was not
onsite at the time of the search) was next called.  She started out by
admitting that she didn't know anything about computers -- that she had
telco people conducting the search under her supervision.  She also didn't
know there was a special law for publishers regarding searches.  She was
the one who decided to take the entire BBS, but she didn't even check to
see what the system contained.  Once she completed the inventory of what
was taken, she was no longer involved with the case.

Steve Jackson was called next.  He gave a demo of the BBS as it was
returned to him by the Secret Service that the judge seemed to really
enjoy.  He testified that the Secret Service took 3 computers (1 was
completely disassembled - they took the parts), 2 hard disks, and more than
300 floppies.  Steve's testimony will continue tomorrow morning.

All in all, I think the trial is going quite well.  The judge has a very
dry sense of humor and is very down-to-earth -- he's left his robe unzipped
the whole trial.  He's not a technoid, but he seems to be trying to
understand.  I'll report again tomorrow.
Shari





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Cliff Figallo                                    fig@eff.org 
Online Communicator                              (617)864-0665 (voice)
Electronic Frontier Foundation, Cambridge        (617)864-0866 (fax)       
                     





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                    <<*>><<*>><<*>><<*>><<*>><<*>>                         
Cliff Figallo                                     fig@eff.org
Electronic Frontier Foundation                    (617)864-0665 (voice)
Online Communications                             (617)864-0866 (fax)