the indictment, citing "information currently
available to us that was not available to us at the inception of the
trial." Judge Bua praised the prosecution for this action, which he
described as "very responsible," then dismissed a juror and declared a
mistrial.

Neidorf was a free man. His defense, however, had cost himself and his
family dearly. Months of his life had been consumed in anguish; he had
seen his closest friends shun him as a federal criminal. He owed his
lawyers over a hundred thousand dollars, despite a generous payment to
the defense by Mitch Kapor.

Neidorf was not found innocent. The trial was simply dropped.
Nevertheless, on September 9, 1991, Judge Bua granted Neidorf's motion
for the "expungement and sealing" of his indictment record. The United
States Secret Service was ordered to delete and destroy all
fingerprints, photographs, and other records of arrest or processing
relating to Neidorf's indictment, including their paper documents and
their computer records.

Neidorf went back to school, blazingly determined to become a lawyer.
Having seen the justice system at work, Neidorf lost much of his
enthusiasm for merely technical power. At this writing, Craig Neidorf
is working in Washington as a salaried researcher for the American
Civil Liberties Union.

#

The outcome of the Neidorf trial changed the EFF from
voices-in-the-wilderness to the media darlings of the new frontier.

Legally speaking, the Neidorf case was not a sweeping triumph for
anyone concerned. No constitutional principles had been established.
The issues of "freedom of the press" for electronic publishers remained
in legal limbo. There were public misconceptions about the case. Many
people thought Neidorf had been found innocent and relieved of all his
legal debts by Kapor. The truth was that the government had simply
dropped the case, and Neidorf's family had gone deeply into hock to
support him.

But the Neidorf case did provide a single, devastating, public
sound-bite: THE FEDS SAID IT WAS WORTH EIGHTY GRAND, AND IT WAS ONLY
WORTH THIRTEEN BUCKS.

This is the Neidorf case's single most memorable element. No serious
report of the case missed this particular element. Even cops could not
read this without a wince and a shake of the head. It left the public
credibility of the crackdown agents in tatters.

The crackdown, in fact, continued, however. Those two charges against
Prophet, which had been base