Slashdot Mirror
Jon Johansen DVD Trial Date Set
mpawlo writes: "As reported by Greplaw, the Norweigan 'Byrett' (district court) will try the Jon Johansen DVD case on December 9, 2002. The trial was supposed to take place this summer, but the court decided to postpone the trial to find a technology savvy judge. The case will be tried
by one judge and a panel of two lay assessors. Jon Johansen is being prosecuted by the Norwegian Economic Crime Unit
(OKOKRIM) under Norwegian Criminal Code 145(2). Johansen created DeCSS
software that can enable DVD playback on Linux. It is argued that the DeCSS software is a piracy tool." Here is the Greplaw story with more links.
It is a piracy tool.
It's also a tool with legitimate usage.
The question is wether the law still counts when the tool has a reasonably legitimate use.
Congrats to the Norwegians for taking the time for a fair trial by a competant judge.
"Norwegian Economic Crime Unit (OKOKRIM) "
OKOKRIM sounds more like it should be estblished in a prison, not a crime unit. Ick.
"Derp de derp."
EEF information on the Jon Johansen case.
Read the indictment. in Norwegian.
Linux World interview with Johansen.
Swedish coverage of the case.
EEF campaign to free Johansen.
Old slashdot article about original indictment.
courtTV will be releasing the entire trial on DVD with 3 different camera angles, and a secondary audio track with commentary by the judge.
MARIJUANA, SHROOMS, X: ONLINE?! - E
Taken from the Greplaw link, copy pasted and formatted. Originally by "Seth Finkelstein".
... and the encryption code wasn't in fact written by me, but written by the German member. There seems to be a bit of confusion about that part.
...
As Jon Johansen put it himself in an old interview:
Jon Johansen: I'm 16 now, I was 15 when it happened
LinuxWorld: The other two people that you had worked with to make the player are remaining anonymous -- is that right?
Jon Johansen: Yes, that is correct.
LinuxWorld: Do you know why they want to remain anonymous?
Jon Johansen: They are both a lot older than me, and they are employed. So I guess they just didn't want the publicity, and they were perhaps afraid of getting fired.
It seems to me that, according to law, he is guilty. The original trial is meaningless, since he can only be found guilty, if the system works the way it is supposed to. In an ordinary court it is only to determine whether a law has been broken. One [at least] _HAS_ been broken. It is not until the appeals proccess that it can be determined whether those laws are in question.
-- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
1. whether they will be able to point to any DVDs that have been pirated from the use of his code and his code only, not somebody else's; and how they will be able to prove that it was his code.
2. if they do find his code used for piracy why would they not find VCRs, analog cables, DVD drives, and computers to be piracy tools also.
2a. if they find pirated material created with his code, and are able to prove it, why wouldn't they go after the actual pirates rather than going after him. Because his code does have other non-pirate uses.
under linux why didn't the recording industry just create a legitimate DVD player for linux?
I still don't see how they have a case, he never profitted from his efforts (other than he might have gotten a job interview for creating DeCSS)
We wouldn't have this problem if mother teresa ran the record companies. The RIAA wants to eat your grandparents and prevent you from making legitimate backups of them.
It's just like the idiots who want to outlaw balacavas. Sure, they're 'terrorist masks', but if you've ever been in the cold for long enough, they're simply a necessary fact of life.
For a good deal of fair-use DVD software, DeCSS was a necessary step.
Case in point: Circumventing region restrictions. No way, no how are region restrictions in any way protected under copyright law. Neither is not playing the disk on the OS of your choice.
Even if you want to complain that he wrote code for Windows rather than Linux, here's an example from my own situation, since I use windows for media tools: For a long time, (until a firmware patch came out) my mobo would not support DMA to my DVD drive under Windows 2000. This means fairly slow access speed and jerky, out-of-sync playback in any of the good software DVD players for win32. By ripping the DVD to my harddisk, however, I can watch it at normal quality settings. Without DeCSS and rippers based on it, I wouldn't be able to do that.
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
it isn't just playback on linux... it is playback on linux from the harddrive... NOT the original DVD disc.
if mother teresa ran the record companies, all we would hear is shitty local bands that she gave all the airplay to cause they were 'nice boys'.
MARIJUANA, SHROOMS, X: ONLINE?! - E
Something interesting I noticed about the timing for this case, that struck me as odd... When Jon was arrested two years ago, he was sixteen. He was, I believe, a minor under Norwegian law, and the charges were dropped. He is now eighteen, if my math is correct, and possibly older. Is this past the age of legal majority in Norway? And if so, could this be part of the motive for delaying the trial?
After all, they probably wouldn't be able to get much of a penalty against an underaged individual who wasn't even the primary coder and who has stated many times that he wishes his code to be used as part of a DVD player. However, now that he's older, they might be able to get stiffer penalties. Or at the very least, get a black mark on his permanent record and make it much harder for him to get into a good college/university or get a good job.
Remember, Johansen is being made an example of. The MPAA is trying to say "screw with our monopoly and we'll do this to you". They, of course, want this example to be as effective as possible.
At the very least, everyone reading this article (especially those of you in Norway!) should support Johansen however possible. Donate money, organize protests, publicize his case. Make it a hot-button emotional issue. Make it clear that we just want to play DVDs, make it clear to people that the MPAA doesn't want them to import movies from another country and watch them before the approved-from-on-high release date, or buy at a cheaper price from the next country over.
Good luck to you, Jon! I remember being shocked back in 2000, when you got arrested on nothing more than the say-so of the DVD CCA for releasing a simple program that did nothing more than read data. I'm shocked that the MPAA's still persecuting you. I hope you can prove your innocence and strike a blow for the right to use generic computing technologies.
I mean, a piracy tool that does not do anything doesn't make sense. I realize that the real issue is that the MPAA wants to control the format of distribution, but I'm interested in how the prosecution is arguing this case.
The only thing I can think of, is that you could better compress the decoded disk and then make it viable for download? Is this true? Does norweigan law specify exactly what a piracy tool is? Obviously a CD burner could be a piracy tool too, so how do they make the distinction in the law between a device that can be used for many things including piracy, and a piracy device? I hope it isn't exclusively prosecutorial discretion.
Scandinavian Slashdotters may be interested in a discussion on the case over at Swedish Gnuheter. Some are thinking about arranging a protest in connection with the trial, but Scandinavian courts are very rarely impressed by such activities. Still, a manifestation of the kind might have other results than affecting the courts. The public is probably not aware of what is going on in the copyright wars and they need to be addressed through the media accordingly.
Regards
Mikael
Pawlo.com
JUDGE: Would that you could render this extermination unnecessary by renouncing this method of illegal decryption!
JOHANSEN: No, Your Honor, it cannot be. I don't think much of our profession, but, contrasted with respectability, it is comparatively honest. No, Your Honor, I shall live and die a Pirate King.
(SONG -- PIRATE KING)
JOHANSEN: Oh, better far to live and die
Under the flightless bird I fly,
Than play a corporate raider's part
With a pirate head and a pirate heart.
Away to the cheating world go you,
Where pirates all are well-to-do;
But I'll be true to the song I sing,
And live and die a Pirate King.
For I am a Pirate King!
And it is, it is a glorious thing
To be a Pirate King!
For I am a Pirate King!
SLASHDOTTERS:You are!
Hurrah for the Pirate King!
JOHANSEN:And it is, it is a glorious thing
To be a Pirate King.
SLASHDOTTERS:It is!
Hurrah for the Pirate King!
(Inserted to avoid lameness filter.)
Hurrah for the Pirate King!
JOHANSEN:When I sally forth to seek my prey
I help myself in a royal way.
I rip a few more flicks, it's true,
Than a well-bred hacker ought to do;
But many a hack with a first-class clone,
If he wants to call his warez his own,
Must manage somehow to get through
More lines of code than e'er I do,
For I am a Pirate King!
And it is, it is a glorious thing
To be a Pirate King!
For I am a Pirate King!
SLASHDOTTERS:You are!
Hurrah for the Pirate King!
JOHANSEN:And it is, it is a glorious thing
To be a Pirate King.
SLASHDOTTERS:It is!
Hurrah for the Pirate King!
(the lameness filter, to avoid, inserted.)
Hurrah for the Pirate King!
(exeunt.)
The good and new comes from no quarter where it is looked for, and is always something different from what is expected.
Honestly.
I mean, this is not just some minor licensing issues or whatever. People are actually trying to put other people in jail for writing software that enables people wo watch DVD:s they have payed for. That's exactly what's happening - why can't the people adovacting this crap see that?
*sigh*
/ Peter Schuller
--
peter.schuller@infidyne.com
http://www.scode.org
The original Slashdot story about Jon prompted me throw up a mirror on my own site, and link to it from a comment. (I'm a UK citizen resident in the UK, as is the server holding my little site.) A couple of months later I was clearing the christmas mail list backlog when I came across a legalistic document concerning deCSS. To my amazement it seemed I was a defendant ("John Doe #13") in the California case. (The 2600 case is in NYC.)
In the ensuing two and a half years I've become increasingly radicalised (in the geek sense: I had a flirtation with "IRL" politics for a few years in my late teens/early 20s and lost interest pretty thoroughly after that.) In retrospect, this event was the first time I made a small gesture of public support for the freedoms we all consider so important. The reaction to it, whilst amusing, has given me a different perspective on matters which previously seemed unconnected: the importance of the GPL, for instance, the reasons *why* the DMCA is just the tip of an iceberg...
The only moral to my anecdote is this: where's *your* mirror of deCSS? Mine's still there =)
"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free." -- Goethe
ORDER! ORDER! I placed an order on Amazon where the hell is my book?!
No, the point is not whether he violated the DMCA, since the DMCA is an American law, and Jon Johansen is tried in Norway. Your American laws don't count in a Norwegian court.
You all missed my point...
Point is, linux had a sizable market share when this entire shennanigan began. It would have been in the DVD makers best interest to have a player availiable for the system.
He's a victim of this war.
He's already served his purpose. He took the rap. The mpaa was looking for a scapegoat anyways......
Where would DIVX be without ATI All In Wonder, or Haupage WinTV cards? Maybe we should jail them, oh wait, they're corporations and they're above the law.
Religion is a gateway psychosis. -- Dave Foley
Piracy my ass. It allows me to run down to Blockbuster so I can watch something every weekend and watch movies in full quality. Else, I'd have to get half rate movies off the internet. Who are they kidding?
Right now, I can only play ONE DVD on my Linux box. That's an unencrypted demo disk of anime from Bandai. I have been futzing and futzing with both of my Linux installations (Red Hat 7.3 and Lycoris Build 46) and have yet to have any DVD playing enjoyment.
WTF happened to LinDVD? I would be more than willing to BUY a piece of software to legally play my DVDs under Linux.
As long as this absurd situation exists, there will be people breaking this absurd law to play the DVDs they bought with their own money. Millione di grazie, Don Valenti. I _won't_ kiss your fsckn ring.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
When you take your one copy and move it, that does not constitute distribution.
The single disc is not being spread out or dispensed, it is simply being used.
Copyright denies me permission to make copys of that work (with certain exceptions) It does not preclude me from reading, burning, watching in reverse, fast forward, or feeding to a large chicken.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
and I'll try to answer some of your questions.
Jon Johansen is tried (translation:) "for having broken a protection or in a similar fashion gotten access to data that are stored or are transferred by electronical or other technical means and for having caused damage by appropriation or use of such knowledge, or complicity to this." (Yes, this translation sucks. I'm tired.)
The case is in two parts: he breaks a protection, which gives him access to a work that he has bought the right to access. I think the judges will understand this, but Økokrim seems to think otherwise: "The access is unauthorised because the DVDs were sold under the condition that the users should use authorised playback equipment and respect the copy protection." Personally, I know of no such condition.
The other part is whether he caused any damage by spreading information on CSS and the DeCSS program itself. (This part has been added in the new incitement.) Obviously, DeCSS has made DVD piracy a lot easier, but, as you say, so has CD-recorders. If Jon Johansen in considered to be an "accomplice to piracy", so should Plextor and all good ISPs.
Oh well. I need some sleep now.
Rather than punish those who cause harm, the "prohibitionist" tries to make the ability to do harm illegal.
The problem is that the most dangerous tool is the human mind and imagination. The prohibitionist cannot prohibit someone from having thoughts, so all that is left is to prohibit objects.
"Drugs" are a perfect example. The tighter the prohibitions, the greater the violence and reclessness of those who violate the prohibitions. As relatively peaceful people who inadvertantly violate the prohibition are "removed", those who remain are the ones who are not peaceful.
This is the same for all prohibitions, which is why they don't work.
By making it impossible to peacefully and easily view DVD's one has legally bought, it becomes more attractive to purchase illegal "cracked" copies which will be viewable. This will enrich the less ethical criminals at the cost of the legal producers, and do vastly greater damager to "society" than the relatively innocent peaceful "sharing" that would have happened otherwise.
Bob-
The Ludwig von Mises Institute. The reasoning individuals economics
I gave up on DVDs under Linux. I'll come back in 6 months or so, and try again. I eventually got to the point where the only thing holding me back was actually getting the DeCSS plugin to work properly. Which I wasn't able to do. I'm not a guru or anything, but I'm definitely not a n00b.
jred
I'm not a mechanic but I play one in my garage...
(it will take a while to transition my mum to Linux but it will be done for performance and stability reasons)
Ahh yes, the most excellent Mum Linux 2000. I hear it is highly compatible with most Mum's and will easily install over the old Mum OS via UCB (Universal Cerebral Bus).
Plus, it's Debian based!!! Yeah!! dpkg -i breakfast.deb !!
War crimes, torture, lies, illegal spying... Would someone give Bush a blowjob, already, so he can be impeached?
How do you expect them to make a quality product if they can't earn a living selling it?
You are so right. DVD piracy is out of control, and Hollywood producers are out in the streets starving. I saw Steven Spielberg just the other day sitting on a corner wearing a $4000 suit with a sign that said "Will Direct for Food." And I saw Michael Eisner eating oysters at McCormick and Schmick's and he only ordered a $50 bottle of wine! Can you imagine? I swear I saw him wince with agony when he took the first sip. These poor poor men, and it's all the fault of you Linux zealots with your theftware on T-shirts!!
[ or ] but once sold, the person can resell it or use it anywhere in the world that they like. When I buy a paperback book in europe, and fly home with it, customs doesn't wrestle me to the ground for distribution infringment
Er - no, incorrect. USA First Sale rights only apply in the USA, unfortunately.
Levi recently took the major UK supermarket to court in the UK to prevent them buying jeans legitimately in the USA and importing them, on copyright grounds. Levi won.
The reason individuals are not prosecuted, let alone wrestled to the ground, is simply that it is uneconomic. Sad but true.
This case may well end up illuminating Norwegian law only. The access was illegal because the DVD-movies were sold with the resctrictment that the user used only autorised playback equipment. The terms visible to a consumer at the time of purchase on my region 2 copy of Lord of the Rings does not contain such a clause, even in the bit you need a magnifying glass to read.
At least the publicity should move along the process of getting Hollywood back in their pram.
"Congress - the best democracy money can buy"
Huh ? All the divx's I've ever watched have been recorded of broadcast TV. How is deCSS necessary for that ?
In fact, this spring I was sailing peacefully in my boat at the North Sea, when I was approached by a wooden ship sailing under a skull and bones flag. When it reached my, my boat was boarded by a wild looking one eyed man with a large beard and a hook instead of one hand. Before I could react, he demanded all my possesions, and threatened to play a Spice World DVD for me on a portable computer running Linux unless I complied immediately. When I pointed out that the DVD was encoded and wouldn't be playable on his computer, he just laughed and showed me the DeCSS source. At that point, I had no other options than to comply.
So DeCSS is obviously a piracy tool.
Some claim it can be used for unauthorized copying as well.
Some EU countries are about to make this the law, because of some silly EU directive. Norway is not an EU country, though. In fact I'll bet that only a tiny percentage of people here are familiar with Norwegian copyright law, so I'm assuming that comments are talking out of their asses until proven otherwise :)
.no copyright law, we tend to correct other comments when they get it wrong. ;)
Norway is part of the EEA, and must unfortunately implement the brain damage that is the EU Copyright Directive in Norwegian law.
And as for the tiny percentage of us that are familiar with
If J.K.R wrote Windows: Puteulanus fenestra mortalis!
Levi recently took the major UK supermarket to court in the UK to prevent them buying jeans legitimately in the USA and importing them, on copyright grounds. Levi won.
Levi claimed trademark infringement, not copyright infringement.
See EU Court of Justice, case C-414/99
The "Levi's" and "501" trademarks in the UK are held by Levi Ltd, a UK company.
The court held that, by importing Levi jeans from the US, Tesco and Costco infringed on the trademarks held by Levi Ltd.
If J.K.R wrote Windows: Puteulanus fenestra mortalis!
dd if=/dev/dvdrom of=file.dvd
Outlaw dd.
(and it's only piracy if you run through the clerk at a floating BlockBuster as you're getting the source dvd)
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
I think it is admirable that you will only buy into DVD if and when the MPAA license a linux platform DVD player. Although the case revolves around this, I think the core issue here is one that affects intellectual freedom worldwide, that they could bring this charge against Mr. Johansen at all. DeCSS is no more a piracy tool than a pencil is a copyright infringement tool or a gun a tool for murder. The fact that it is possible to use it to break a law should not be a sufficient argument to outlaw it.
Hell, DVD playing is what drove me full time to Linux from my Windows/Linux dual boot. After re-imaging, I couldn't reinstall the DVD player because it didn't think it was going on the computer I bought. Ain't copy protection lovely?
luckily the error doesn't change the territorial bugbear it illustrated.
:)
The bugbear is the same. That is, how the (non)exhaustion of rights at first sale and commercial import interact.
I am not fond of community exhaustion, as set forth in the EUCD. It sounds too much like creating a 'Festung Europa' for copyrighted works.
in about '94/'95 my boss at the time ordered laserdiscs from the US. They were stopped at the border because the discs hadn't come through the official release channels and weren't officially available in NZ.
That sounds like an example of parallel import laws.
can you tell us if the EU 'fair terms for consumers' directive applies in Norway?
The directive is 93/13/EEC
According to the EFTA Surveillance Authority database, this directive is implemented in Norway.
If the case against Jon Johansen initially stems from the resctrictment that the user used only autorised playback equipmen is it "reasonable" to claim a consumer is prohibited playing a legally purchased dvd on a linux box ?
_I_ would say that it is unreasonable.
Please note that the Økokrim indictment does not claim that a customer is contractually bound to only play DVDs on 'authorised' players. It claims that the DVDs were sold with the expectation that they would only be played on 'authorised' players.
I don't know what Økokrim is thinking, and to me it seems like they have an extremely weak case. After all - there is no contract. Once you buy a DVD record you should only be bound by copyright law regarding what you can or can't do with the content of that DVD.
A judge might not agree, though, and that scares me.
What would be your advice to his legal team?
Focus on two questions:
- The question of legitimate/illegitmate access. If you own a DVD, why would you not have legitimate access to the content?
- Ask the MPAA to show why some DVD players are more equal than others. That is - why are only DVDCCA-licensed players authorised to access DVDs? Why and how is it possible that the 'right to access' is attached to the DVD player and not to the DVD record?
If J.K.R wrote Windows: Puteulanus fenestra mortalis!