----------------------------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]>