让我们回到现实世界中MEANWHILE BACK IN THE REAL WORLD…
史蒂夫·杰克逊游戏公司的工作人员要在这里“感谢”美国特勤局对GURPS Cyberpunk进行的“写实程度检验”。事情是这样发生的……
3月1日,SJ Games的办公室和GURPS赛博朋克作家的家都被美国特勤处(us Secret Service)作为对数据盗版行为的全国性调查的一部分进行了突击搜查。他们查获了大量的设备,包括有四台电脑、两台激光打印机和零零散散的硬盘和大量配套硬件。在这些电脑中,有一台运行着Illuminnati 论坛。
被拿走的电脑都是那些装有GURPS赛博朋克文件的电脑;里面有其他系统的电脑都被保留了下来。在他们孜孜不倦地寻找证据的过程中,特工们还切断了门锁,强行打开了鞋柜,撕毁了仓库里的几十个箱子,并在试图撬开文件柜上的锁时弄弯了我们的两个拆信机。
第二天,在律师的陪同下,我亲自拜访了特勤局在奥斯汀的办公室。我们被许诺可以复制我们的文件。但结果是,我们只能从一个系统中拷贝一些文件。因为我们没有了本书的所有的文本文件和硬拷贝,以及Illuminnati论坛上的测评文件。
在那次拜访中,很明显,调查人员认为GURPS Cyberpunk是“计算机犯罪手册”。他们似乎觉得在未来进行信用欺诈、使用不存在的设备和现实生活中的信用卡滥用没有区别。特工们反复强调,“这是真的。”现在我要坦率地承认了,这本书是迄今为止发行的最写实的赛博朋克游戏。它用大量的背景信息将这个题材变得极其真实。但它不会用一节入门课就让你成为一个控制台牛仔,就像GURPS Fantasy 不会教你剑术一样。遗憾的是,这些调查人员似乎忽略了这一区别。
在接下来的几周里,特勤局一再向我们的律师保证,我们的文件的完整副本将在“明天”归还。但这些承诺没有兑现;这本书是用旧的备份,游戏副本,笔记和记忆重新构建而成的。
在3月26日,在将近四周的时间里,部分的(但不是全部)文件被归还。四个月后的6月21日,我们取回了大部分的(但不是全部)硬件。特勤局现在还将我们的一个硬盘,洛伊德所有的个人设备和文件,GURPS赛博朋克的打印件和其他一些东西占为己有。
剧透 - :
The Steve Jackson Games staff offers our somewhat bemused thanks to the United States Secret Service for their diligent "reality checking" of GURPS Cyberpunk. It happened like this… On March 1 the SJ Games offices, and the home of the GURPS Cyberpunk writer, were raided by the U.S. Secret Service as part of a nationwide investigation of data piracy. A large amount of equipment was seized, including four computers, two laser printers, some loose hard disks and a great deal of assorted hardware. One of the computers was the one running the Illuminati BBS.
The only computers taken were those with GURPS Cyberpunk files; other systems were left in place. In their diligent search for evidence, the agents also cut off locks, forced open footlockers, tore up dozens of boxes in the warehouse, and bent two of our letter openers attempting to pick the lock on a file cabinet. The next day, accompanied by an attorney, I personally visited the Austin offices of the Secret Service. We had been promised that we could make copies of our files. As it turned out, we were only allowed to copy a few files, and only from one system. Still missing were all the current text files and hard copy for this book, as well as the files for the Illuminnati BBS with their extensive playtest comments.
In the course of that visit, it became clear that the investigating agents considered GURPS Cyberpunk to be "a handbook lor computer crime." They seemed to make no distinction between a discussion of futuristic credit fraud, using equipment that doesn't exist, and modern real-life credit card abuse. A repeated comment by the agents was "This is real." Now I'll freely admit that this book is the most realistic cyberpunk game yet released. It has a lot of background information to put the genre in context. But it won't make you into a console cowboy in one easy lesson any more than GURPS Fantasy will teach you swordplay. Sadly the distinction appeared lost on the investigators.
Over the next few weeks, the Secret Service repeatedly assured our attorney that complete copies of our files would be returned "tomorrow." But these promises weren't kept; this book was reconstructed from old backups, playtest copies, notes and memories. On March 26, almost four weeks alter the raid, some (but not all) of the files were returned. It was June 21 nearly four months later, when we got most (but not all) of our hardware back. The Secret Service still has one of our hard disks, all Loyd's personal equipment and files, the printouts of GURPS Cyberpunk, and several other things.
为什么我们被搜查了呢?直到10月21日,在我们收到了一份特勤局授权证明的复印件之后,我们才知道了理由是什么。洛伊德·布兰肯希普在核查这本书的写实程度的时候,在与各种各样的,从电脑安全专家到自称是电脑黑客的人通信。在他家里,他运营着一个讨论“地下电脑”的合法论坛,并且认识很多论坛的成员。这足以把他列入联邦的危险分子名单!
对我们的办公室进行搜查的证明就是在信口雌黄……洛伊德·布兰肯希普之所以被怀疑,是因为他经营着一个具有技术素养和对政治不敬的论坛,还因为他收到并重新发布了一份飞客时事通讯。就因为Loyd为我们工作,并且登了不同的论坛就要搜查我们 !(实际的授权证明和更多相关信息现在都发布在llluminati论坛上,供有兴趣的人参考。)
整个事件中的一个亮点是我们从电子前沿基金会( Electronic Frontier Foundation)得到的帮助。EFF是为了应对这种以及类似的暴行而被创建出来的。它是一个非营利性组织,致力于维护计算机用户的宪法权利。(更多信息,请写信到1001 G街.N.W .950室.华盛顿特区20001。)
快到1993年的时候,此案终于开庭审理。法官做出的三项指控中有两项对我们有利,共判给我们5万多美元的赔偿金,外加25万多美元的律师费。
对一些执法人员来说,任何拥有计算机知识的人都是可疑的,特别是如果他们有调制解调器(译注:即现在俗称的“猫”)的话。任何使用论坛的人都是可疑的,不管您认为自己在宪法上拥有何等权利。电脑使用者到底有没有“言论自由”和“新闻自由”?有些人说他们没有。也许赛博朋克的未来比我们想象的更近,更黑暗。
——史蒂夫•杰克逊
剧透 - :
Why were we raided? We didn't find that out until October 21, when we finally received a copy of the Secret Service warrant affidavit — at their request, it had been sealed. While reality-checking the book, Loyd Blankenship corresponded with a variety of people, from computer security experts to self-confessed computer crackers. From his home, he ran a legal BBS which discussed the "computer underground" and knew many of its members. That was enough to put him on a federal List of Dangerous Hoodlums! The affidavit on which our offices were raided is unbelievably flimsy… Loyd Blankenship was suspect because he ran a technologically literate and politically irreverent BBS and because he received and re-posted a copy of the PHRACK newsletter. The company was raided simply because Loyd worked for us and used a different BBS here! (The actual affidavit, and much more related information, is now posted on llluminati Online for those who are interested.)
The one bright spot in this whole affair has been the help we have received from the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The EFF was created in mid-1990 in response to this and similar outrages. It is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the Constitutional rights of computer users. (For more information, write them at 1001 G Street. N.W.. Suite 950 East. Washington, DC 20001.)
Nearly 1993, the case finally came to trial. The judge ruled in our favor on two out of the three counts, and awarded us over $50,000 in damages, plus over $250,000 in attorney's fees.
To some law-enforcement officers, anybody with any computer knowledge at all is suspect… especially if they own a modem. And users of any BBS are doubly suspect, regardless of the Constitutional rights you thought you had. Do "freedom of speech" and "freedom of the press" apply to computer users? Some say they don't. Maybe the cyberpunk future is closer, and darker, than we think.
- Steve Jackson