Offices Of Steve J. Grimes Vs. Secret Service

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Offices of Steve Jackson Games vs. Secret Service On March 1 1999, the offices of Steve Jackson games were raided by the U.S. Secret Service as a part of nationwide investigation of data piracy. The original news stories simply reported that the Secret Service raided a suspected ring of hackers. Over time the true story came out. Steve Jackson accused the Secret Service's raid as being illegal, careless, and completely unjustified. Steve Jackson's attorney repeatedly asked for full copies of the original file. He was promised he would receive them the next day. The files were reconstructed from old partial files, backups, notes and memories. The Secret Service kept all of Steve Jackson's Computer equipment and would not hand them over. The Secret Service's Raid also put a huge damper on Steve Jackson's business. Steve Jackson later found out he was on a list of suspected hackers because he ran a legal Bulletin Board that discussed the "computer Underground."

This case led to the decision that freedom of speech applies to the Internet as well as all other forms of communication and opened the doors for many people who were treated the same way to get justice for their mistreatment. The Electronic frontier foundation was also developed out of this. The Electronic Frontier Foundation now addresses similar outrages. Steve Jackson was awarded $50,00 in damages plus over $250,000 in attorney's fees.