----------------------------Original message----------------------------
 
 Note:  The following letter was sent to the Detroit Public
 Library's Map Librarian last month.  We are posting it to GOVDOC-
 L and MAPS-L because of its potential interest to map and
 government documents librarians.  We have no personal interest in
 this case, nor does our institution.  We cannot speak to the
 veracity of the details provided here, or of the charges brought
 against Bill Stewart.  Our editorial changes are indicated by
 brackets.
 
 M. Knes (Map Specialist) and C. Hartnett (Manager, Government
 Documents) Detroit Public Library
 
 ============================================================
 
 Bill Stewart:  Facts of the Case
 
 On May 16, <1995>, Bill long-time coach and mentor of many in the
 running community, was wrongfully convicted in the State of
 Virginia on four felony counts.  The case involved selling
 computer tapes containing digitized maps derived from satellite
 data.  The federal prosecutor claimed the tapes belonged to the
 Department of Defense and contained information that was vital to
 national security.
 
 News of the conviction has shocked friends and associates.  Bill
 has primary care of his children, helps coach the Dexter
 <Michigan> High School boys track team, and has devoted his life
 to helping runners, especially women runners, at little or no
 charge.  He is the chairperson for Women's Long Distance Running
 for the Michigan chapter of USATF.  He lives with Olympic
 marathon hopeful Ann Boyd in a small house in Ann Arbor.
 Together they produce the Michigan USATF newsletter.
 
 During the past decade, Bill has developed a business of
 procuring hard-to-find paper maps of developing countries and
 selling them to interested parties (primarily, university
 libraries and, to a lesser extent, corporations).  In 1993,
 Motorola (an established client) asked Bill to investigate the
 possibility of obtaining some maps of Indonesia that were on file
 in the library at the University of Cornell.  These were paper
 maps and thus had to be copied; Bill needed someone to do that
 for him and was referred to a graduate student at Cornell <...>
 
 The librarian at Cornell conceded that these maps were in the
 public domain and that copies could be made, but decided the risk
 of damage to the originals precluded their removal from the
 library for copying.  And since the library didn't have a copier
 large enough to handle the size of these maps, copying became
 impractical.  Motorola understood and said India was now on the
 front burner anyway.
 
 When Bill relayed Motorola's decision to <the graduate student>,
 <the graduate student> told Bill that the university had
 "digitized maps" of India and most of Asia.  Bill was completely
 unfamiliar with the concept of digitized maps on computer tapes,
 so he asked <the graduate student> to explain.  Bill also asked
 if the tapes were classified or restricted in any way.  <The
 graduate student> said no.  <The graduate student> faxed an index
 of the areas covered by the tapes, then Bill got back in touch
 with Motorola.  They said, "sure, we'd be interested in the
 digitized tapes; we are doing that with the paper maps anyway."
 
 <The graduate student> went ahead with the project, copying some
 221 tapes, but delivered only some demos and just three of the
 actual tapes to Bill.  Nothing on the face of the tapes indicated
 that they were restricted in any way.  Bill sent two different
 demos to Motorola, but Motorola couldn't read the tapes and lost
 immediate interest.  In an attempt to recoup his upfront costs,
 Bill made some cold calls to other companies in an attempt to
 sell the tapes.  One of the people he contacted apparently knew
 these tapes came from the Defense Mapping Agency and had not been
 released for sale.  This person didn't tell Bill of this fact,
 but he did tell federal authorities.
 
 The end result?  Federal authorities set up a sting and had Bill
 sell three tapes of the Mideast to an government agent (which,
 incidentally, were the only tapes Bill ever sold).  In November
 of 1993, Bill and Ann's house was invaded by a swarm of agents
 with bulletproof vests, who confiscated most of Bill's business
 records.
 
 Over the next year, Bill was completely cooperative with the
 authorities.  Everyone he talked to (except the federal
 prosecutor, of course) said "this charge is silly and is sure to
 be dismissed".  But it wasn't -- and on May 16th, Bill was
 convicted of the charges.  A big part of the prosecution's case
 involved the testimony of <the graduate student>, who had been
 given an easy sentence (probation) for "cooperating".  As you
 might have guessed, <the graduate student> testified that Bill
 was the primary "mover" in the deal and that he, <the graduate
 student> had told Bill in no uncertain terms that the tapes were
 restricted.  Of course, he never put it in writing to Bill, and
 nothing on the tapes indicated that fact <...>
 
 There is an interesting side bar to this story as well.
 Witnesses from the Department of Defense claimed these tapes
 contained the "best available information" and were vital to
 national security.  The federal prosecutor painted Bill to the
 jury as basically a terrorist and the jury, just days after the
 Oklahoma City bombing, brought back a guilty verdict.  But
 shortly after the verdict, the June issue of National Geographic
 Hit the stands with a story about a book (The Holy Land Satellite
 Atlas) published in 1994 and featuring material from digitized
 maps of the very same area of the Mideast contained in the tapes
 Bill sold to the government agents.  The really interesting part,
 however, was this:  the maps in the book were 100 times more
 detailed than the maps Bill was alleged to have converted.  In
 other words, there was much better stuff in the public domain
 than that claimed by the feds to be so "sensitive."
 
 Lew Kidder
 
 <For more information about this letter you may contact Mr.
 Kidder at (313) 662-1000 or e-mail [log in to unmask]>