IP: old case of surveillance software, "stolen" by the govt

[David Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>]

>X-Sender: jwarren@mail.well.com
>Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1999 16:13:46 -0700
>To: Recipient List Suppressed:;;;;Recipient.List.Suppressed:;@well.com;;;;;;;;
>From: Jim Warren <jwarren@well.com>
>Subject: old case of surveillance software, "stolen" by the govt
>
>Hi all --  [blind-cc'ed to several friends and two "appropriate" lists]
>
>I'm trying to track down pointers to some neferious old surveillance
>software -- from back in the '80s ... or possibly even in the '70s.  (My
>old-fashioned paper archives on it are in such a pilefile disarray as to be
>useless. <sigh>)
>
>Here's what I can remember:
>
>It was an expensive commercial software package, for mainframes.
>
>It apparently had a very limited market -- primarily (or exclusively?) law
>enforcement and prosecutors.
>
>It was "officially" designed as case-tracking software for use by trial
>lawyers and/or prosecutors -- but turned out to be
>just-absolutely-super-dandy-wunerful for tracking and maintaining massive,
>comprehensive records of all aspects of surveillance of citizens (but would
>only be used to monitor "bad" citizens, of course ;-).
>
>(Hell!  If I had the software and had used it to index my paper archives,
>then maybe I could have used it to track down my copies of the articles
>about it. :-)
>
>The producer of the very-expensive package sold a copy to the U.S. Dept of
>Justice (US DOJ) ... and later discovered that unpermitted/"stolen" copies
>of it had been given to at least the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP)
>and some of the Israeli defense or police or political-surveillance
>agencies (don't remember the details) -- allegedly provided by the US DOJ,
>allegedly to assist them in maintaining massive covert surveillance files
>on [selected?] citizens.
>
>All of this came to light -- and was reported in several articles in
>COMPUTERWORLD -- because the software producer sued US DOJ and the US
>Attorney General (US AG) for theft of their proprietary software ... of the
>copies that were illicitly channeled to the RCMP and Israeli forces.  My
>recollection is that the US DOJ and/or US AG was either found guilty, or
>that they finally were forced to settle out of court and pay handsomely,
>for the purloined programs.
>
>Now ... questions:
>
>Anyone remember the name of the software?  The producer/publisher?  The
>approximate dates or time-frame when all this happened?  Any pointers to
>information or articles about it stored/accessible in *modern* web/online
>form?
>
>Many thanks.
>
>--jim, Jim Warren
>Contributing Editor & technology public-policy columnist, MicroTimes Magazine
>Also GovAccess list-owner/editor; 345 Swett Rd, Woodside CA 94062
>  voice/650-851-7075; fax-for-the-quaint/650-851-2814; jwarren@well.com
>
>[self-inflating puff: Hugh Hefner First-Amendment Award, Playboy Foundation;
>Electronic Frontier Foundation Pioneer Award (in its first year);
>James Madison Freedom-of-Information Award, Soc.of Prof.Journalists-Nor.Calif
>founded InfoWorld; the Computers, Freedom & Privacy Conferences; etc etc etc.]