March 1, 1990: The Raid of Steve Jackson Games
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1990 – The secret service and Austin TX police raided Steve Jackson Games, along with the home of Loyd Blankenship, writer of GURPS Cyberpunk. Four computers, two laser printers and all of the companies’ hardware was seized. This was a part of a nationwide data piracy investigation.
It was a very sketchy reason for why the roleplaying and gaming company got raided this hard. This also brought on a six month battle to get back their hardware, which they finally were able to retrieve all but one hard drive. Finally, on October 21, 1990, Steve Jackson Games got to look at the warrant and reason why they were raided.
It turned out Blankenship was doing research for his book. He visited and talked alot about questionable topics at his home and at his work – Steve Jackson Games.
This incident sparked the creation of the Electronic Frontier Foundation – a nonprofit dedicated to the constitutional rights of computer users.
Wikazine – Full show notes for March 1
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