Jon Johansen cleared of dvd privacy

[aem4162]

from cnet, 12-22-03

Norwegian cleared of DVD piracy

Last modified: December 22, 2003, 6:30 AM PST

By Reuters

An Oslo appeals court cleared a 20-year-old Norwegian man of DVD piracy charges on Monday in a new setback for Hollywood studios, which say unauthorized copying costs them billions of dollars a year.

Upholding a verdict by a lower court in January, the court said that Jon Johansen had broken no laws by helping to unlock a code and distribute a computer program on the Internet enabling unauthorized copying of DVD movies.

The U.S. movie industry, which says that piracy costs $3 billion a year in lost sales, had accused Johansen of theft in cracking the copy-protection code when he was 15 and appealed against the January acquittal.

Johansen, called "DVD Jon," had pleaded not guilty to charges that he broke Norwegian law by helping break the code on commercial DVDs. The original court said that he was free to do what he wanted with DVDs he bought legally.

Prosecutors, who appealed against the original verdict, had urged a suspended 90-day jail term for Johansen.

"The appeal is rejected," Judge Wenche Skjeggestad told the court.

Johansen himself was not present to hear the verdict, as he was on holiday in France.

The lower Oslo court also said in January that prosecutors had failed to prove that Johansen's program--called DeCSS--had been used for illegal copying.

Prosecutors from Norway's Economic Crime Unit, which pursued the case on behalf of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), argued that Johansen's copying of DVDs was unauthorized and therefore illegal.

The MPAA represents Hollywood studios like Walt Disney, Universal Studios and Warner Bros.

Prosecutors lodged an appeal against the January verdict, objecting to the application of the law and the presentation of evidence. The MPAA will have to go to Norway's supreme court if it appeals again. It was not immediately clear whether that avenue would be pursued.

Story Copyright ? 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

[sinatosk]

An appeals court in Oslo today upheld Jon Lech Johansen's earlier acquittal on all counts of alleged copyright violations, the Norwegian daily newspaper Aftenposten reports.

Johansen, 20, was alleged to have broken the law by writing and publishing a DVD descrambling program, DeCSS, so that he could watch films he owned on a Linux Pc. It earned him the nickname DVD Jon.

The case began three years ago when he was charged by the Norwegian Economic Crime Unit and had to appear in court. The Norwegian prosecutors were acting largely on the behest of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). They sought a suspended jail term and a fine of NOK 20,000 (about ?3,000).

In January this year, a lower court had ruled that Johansen had done nothing illegal when he helped to crack the DVD copy protection code back in 1999 and then explained on his website how he had done it. The prosecutors appealed the verdict.

Today's verdict wasn't expected until early January. But the appeals court (Borgarting Lagmannsrett) didn't see any need to wait with its decision. That means the lower court's decision will stand. A supreme court case is still possible, but very unlikely. ?

- The Register

[figgy]

[Joseph Zollo]

:) This is great news! The MPAA can shove it!!!

[Dazzla Veteran]

Merged

[aem4162]

i would've posted this on the front page but i don't know how to do it :(

[Trust]

its a good news! :D

[Veedems Veteran]

i would've posted this on the front page but i don't know how to do it :(

You have to submit it via a link on the right site and an admin will look over it and then decide.

Either way, this is good news, not only for him, but any company offering software to copy dvds's

[xerox]

You gotta love Norway :)

Did I hear land of the free ? ;)