
SJ Games vs. the Secret Service (1990) - RKoutnik
http://www.sjgames.com/SS/
======
bradknowles
There’s another part to the story which I have told to the folks at SJG, but
to which they never responded.

In late 1990, I was working in the basement of the Pentagon, supporting the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, in the J4 Logistics Readiness Center, inside the
National Military Command Center. I was a gamer, but I also had a TS/SCI
security clearance. I had heard about the SS raid on SJG, and I was pissed
off. So, I decided to spend a lot of money and go out and buy one copy of
every GURPS book that I could find at my friendly local gaming store (FLGS).

I had a copy of GURPS CyberPunk, and didn’t think very much of it. I was
already in a CyberPunk game, and the GURPS version was a pale imitation. But
there was another book that drew my attention. It was oriented towards
espionage, and among other things it gave a very accurate description of how
satellite surveillance worked. It also happened to use an actual classified
military code word in the context of explaining what a classified military
code word was and how they were used.

The latter was a clear violation of the law, and as soon as I saw it, I
reported it to my security officer. He confirmed that this was a legitimate
leak of a classified military code word, and he said he would report it
further up the chain of command.

I never heard anything more about it from inside the government, but I have to
believe that the SS and the FBI would use a coverup like pointing at a
different book, if this was the actual reason that they were doing a raid on
SJG.

So, there you go — almost 30 years later, yet another clue as to what might
have been the real reason for the raid.

NB: When a classified military code word is leaked, they have to go through a
huge process to reclassify all the documents that were covered under the old
code word. This is a massive undertaking, and would cost millions or possibly
even billions of dollars. And then there is the cost of the damage to National
Security by all the documents which might already be in enemy hands but where
they didn’t know what the code word covered or what compartment those
documents were in. So, a leak of this type would be ... a really big deal.

~~~
evgen
I find this highly unlikely for a couple of reasons, but the primary reason is
that GURPS Cyberpunk was not published until _after_ the SS raid on the
company as a part of operation SunDevil.

The actual chronology is closer to something like this: feds target a bunch of
hackers, one such hacker is also working on a game for SJG, during raid on his
house feds notice all of the galley drafts and docs for GURPS Cyberpunk (some
of which may have been internal phone company docs and manuals that would look
very suspicious to a non-technical agent who signed up to look cool standing
next to the president and has no idea about most of this stuff) and so they
ask him about it, he happens to mention all of the other docs are just down
the road at the SJG office, some fed gets a bright idea and a bunch of them
head over to SJG to make a very big mistake...

Source: Straight from the mouths of Steve and Loyd. I was hired by Steve to
start Austin's first real ISP with the money he won in this case and my future
brother-in-law worked for SJG at the time of the raid.

~~~
gonzo
Long live io.com

------
Jtsummers
In 2011 (2010?), at the Origins convention in Columbus then VP Biden was
conducting a fundraiser at the same time at the _same_ convention center. It
was hilarious to see the secret service agents walking around. At first I
thought it was some kind of MIB LARP or something. Seeing Secret Service
agents trailing behind the (armed with swords and maces and such) entourage of
a minotaur was hilarious.

Sadly, no one got the joke when I asked if anyone had warned the Steve Jackson
Games crew.

~~~
kregasaurusrex
Scheduling at the Columbus Convention Center really seems to be done without
any regard for neighboring events. An Ohio Linuxfest a couple years ago was
done right alongside a youth cheerleading competition, which had made some
parents seem noticeably uncomfortable. And other weekends have mixed
conventions like Wizard's World Comic Con and Origins, where I'd guess there's
an overlap of people who'd like to go to both but not pay for a split
experience. The expansion which has been under construction for a couple years
is finally done, and the "As We Are"[0] art installation was added including a
decent chunk of event space.

[0]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yt6dyWT4Cms](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yt6dyWT4Cms)

~~~
eh78ssxv2f
May be I am missing something about the American culture...What's wrong with
having Linuxfest next to cheerleading competition?

~~~
barry-cotter
Nerds and men with wizard beards near loads of young women, almost all of whom
are still in high school. Men with lower than average social skills, grooming
and attendance to the normal rituals of social behaviour. American high school
stuff, basically.

------
cityofghosts
The Hacker Crackdown of 1990 by Bruce sterling was the first long form e book
I read. It foretold the future in many ways. 1st, it was a bright shining line
between the old world of govt doing this stuff in shadows, buried in a blurb
on of 10 of the newspaper, and it being in the open for millions to read all
the details, about plain as day. As long as you knew bbses... it was there.
Second, it was distributed for free so I payed the author nothing, which felt
weird. Like a piece was misssing. Third it introduced me to brutal fatalism,
which is a cousin of realism but also a neighbor of depression. There was no
happy ending, people did not learn from their mistakes, bad deeds were not
apologized for not punished, and laws did not change. Law enforcement are
still, largely, uneducated and technically illiterate, and they are still
going after harmless nobodies for no good reason.

------
pronoiac
If you're unaware, this is the origin story for the EFF.

~~~
walrus01
For those who are unaware, the money made from Lotus 1-2-3 (which was game
changing spreadsheet software of the early 1980s) eventually went on to found
the EFF:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitch_Kapor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitch_Kapor)

~~~
mtgex
I mean, yeah kind of. But I don't think that's entirely accurate. Wikipedia
says "Initial funding was provided by Kapor, Wozniak, and an anonymous
benefactor."

It's not like he funneled his Lotus gains into the EFF. A foundation is also a
money raising endeavor and there were likely many people who contributed a
great deal in their early years (and now).

Your statement could just as easily be applied to Wozniak, as in "the money
made from Apple (a game changing computer company) eventually went on the
found the EFF". It's a fun fact, but not all that accurate.

~~~
walrus01
Kapor and Barlow founded the EFF... I was not aware of Wozniak being involved
around the time of operation sundevil in 1990/1991:

[https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/features/civilizing-
cyb...](https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/features/civilizing-
cyberspace-19930610)

~~~
mtgex
Yeah I wasn't aware of it either before.

------
gesman
Moral: No matter who screwed up - attorneys always win.

------
lkrubner
Off-topic: I seem to recall Steve Jackson Games had a magazine during the
1980s? Does anyone recall the name of it? I remember seeing a few copies of it
and really liking it. They had some good sci-fi.

~~~
protomyth
Pyramid

~~~
syntheticnature
Pyramid started in 1993.
[http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/about.html](http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/about.html)

------
dang
From 2010:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1982643](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1982643)

------
preinheimer
This was when I started getting into role playing. I remember buying their
Cyberpunk addendum book and being doubly intrigued by the Secret Service raid.

------
jMyles
Also: GURPS cyberpunk was a great expansion to a great game. I have good
memories of being 10 years old and playing that with an older neighbor friend.

------
walrus01
historical book worth reading:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hacker_Crackdown](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hacker_Crackdown)

------
mwexler
An oft reposted link, but it's a good story to remind ourselves of each time.

------
katastic
>And we won. The judge gave the Secret Service a tongue-lashing and ruled for
SJ Games on two out of the three counts, and awarded over $50,000 in damages,
plus over $250,000 in attorney's fees.

You know, this really sounds like a "win" only in the sense it's the "win"
we're "allowed" to have.

Everyone's lives were ruined for years. They almost lost their business. They
lost a product they had poured countless hours into. They had to pay up front
for attorney's fees (even though they were completely in the right), and spent
years in court.

And all the Secret Service lost was some "sharply worded comments" and a tear-
drop amount of _taxpayer money_ that wouldn't even register on their budget
and had zero affect on their future budgets.

The only brightsides were indirect ones. The EFF was founded, and their case
law would likely be used for future cases and possibly future government
actions (before they act) since they know they wouldn't be able to get away
with it.

