Update On The Jon Johansen Trial

nordicfrost writes "The trial against Jon Johansen goes on. Today, John Hoy of the DVD CCA was examined by phone by the defense and the prosecutor in Oslo. We have set up a page to follow the main events in the trial here, in English. The documentation of evidence, and the fact that Hoy didn't answer the phone when the court called, delayed the trial so the final proceedings may not be finished before Monday afternoon." Update: 12/12 23:50 GMT by T : This wasn't really a Science story ...

Comments

Who is he?

[irc.goatse.cx troll]

Incase anyone forgot, This is the guy that wrote DeCSS (The program that lets people decode dvds so they can be played in free operating systems).

More info on the trial at Google News (Wouldnt it be cool if slashdot automagicly added a google news link to stories to show all relevant links?)

Re:Who is he?

[Dionysus]

Actually, he didn't. He was credited for doing it, but as far as I know, he just wrote the GUI in VisualBasic.

Re:I hope they throw the book at him

[neksys]

No. The tenets of basic economics are hurting the legitmate consumers every time the MPAA accuses someone of stealing DVDs. The fact of the matter is that DVD piracy is almost nonexistent in North America - unlike MP3s, which can be and are downloaded and burned to CD in minutes, inexpensively. The time and cost of copying DVDs is huge in comparison. DVD piracy just isn't here on a large enough scale to warrant any price increase. Its the same reason gas prices are on the rise in every country on the planet - its making a very small number of people very, very rich.

Re:Somebody fill me in?

[Anonymous Coward]

Please fill me in too. I have severe disabilities which prevent me from clicking on any links appearing in a /. story. These same disabilities also prevent me from searching for past stories on this subject.

You may also remember me from a meeting at work -- I was the one who asked you to repeat what the group had just talked about, because my disabilities prevented me from paying attention the first time.

I work in marketing.

Re:court tv dvd box set?

[Flakeloaf]

Yup. Should be on your nearest P2P network by the end of the week. Due to the marvel of 0-day war3z, we'll know what the verdict is before Johansen does.

CSS vs. CSS

[Anonymous Coward]

Håkon Wium Lie has written an interesting article on the trial called "CSS vs. CSS".

Today's two highlights were the sudden evaporation of two witnesses' ability to answer obvious questions. First, Mr John Hoy (62), president of DVD CCA, did not understand his own organization's definition of "Copy Protection Functions". By answering questions on this topic he would undermine the prosecutor's position on "copy protection", so he suddenly turned stale and the defense gave up questioning him.

The other highlight was when another witness of the prosecutor was asked if "zone-free" DVD players are easily available in the market. The witness claimed not to know. Now, anyone in Norway remotely interested in DVD technology must be unusually dense not to know that most players sold here are "zone-free" -- the players break the DVD CCA rules by allowing people to play the US editions of DVD movies. Why Jon is charged when zone-free DVD players are sold openly in the store next door is a question worth asking.

Re:Not a hero

[Anonymous Coward]

A different viewpoint:

I read through a lot of the list and several things struck me. Overall,
I see the list as lending a lot of credibility to Johansen's case. I
don't see it casting doubt as to this.

Overall, I think the livid-dev mailing list shows Johansen was trying
to contribute to Linux (and FreeBSD) and shared code with Derek Fawcus
as a liason to bring this about. He clearly believed _before_ he was
arrested that his actions were consistent with the DMCA and measured
them carefully.

Re:DeCSS and such

[mcc]

I think the key here is rather than trying to put this guy away, DVD manufacturers should work with the DeCSS technology to find a happy medium.

This is what you're missing. The DVD Forum people don't want a "happy medium". They want three things:

1. They want to recieve license fees for every dvd-capable video player in existence.
2. They want every dvd-capable video player in existence to work by their rules-- i.e., the ones that allow content producers to completely set what it is possible to do with each disc. I.e. the Sixth Sense 'you cannot access the menu until you watch this trailer for another movie, every time you insert the dvd', or the thing on certain dvds that won't let you pause, or framestep, or whatever.
3. They want to retain an unchallenged sense of control over their ordered little world.

Which one of these three is the focus varies, but in general #2 is the biggie here, at least because of a perception that content producers flocked to DVD solely becuase they had that level of control. At some point, it seemed that DVD peoples fear that if content producers lost that control, they'd stop putting so much stuff on dvds, switch to another format, or try to take legal action of some kind.

#2 is the biggie insofar as linux goes first off becuase "the linux community" will not truly be happy using a closed source video player-- there will always be the person upset he couldn't play dvds on his 10-year-old sparc because the "approved" propeitary player is x86 and PPC only. But much more importantly, this is a problem because open source platforms inherently empower the user. In the end, the user is in control of everything on the OS. This scares the DVD forum. Remember: In order for Apple to get the DVD forum to let them license their dvd player, Apple was forced to write the dvd player in such a way that it refuses to run if MacsBug, the system-level debugger is running, because MacsBug lets you do things like branch to unscheduled subroutines at random moments, and such would have allowed people to take screenshots while the DVD is running! This is a fairly big thing, MacsBug is a versatile tool that LOTS of people run for various reasons, and it is the best/only way to debug many pieces of software. Because there were potential uses of MacsBug that allowed the user to evade the control the DVD forum wants, macsbug users have to switch the thing off and restart anytime they want to watch a DVD.Given this, why on earth do you think the dvd forum would be okay with allowing any DVD player, even a propeitary one, on an OS where everything in the OS including the device drivers can be re-coded by the user?

Of course, the macsbug thing is a sham: a simple machine-code hack patch thing which is very readily available will allow anyone to alter the dvd player app so that it doesn't notice macsbug. But despite this, Apple still has to leave the "no macsbug" code in the OS 9 version of the DVD player, lest they offend the DVD consortium's illusion of complete control, which they must for some reason maintain to themselves at all costs.

If the DVD people were interested in a happy medium, i'm almost certain one would have been reached. Remember, the mathematical flaws in CSS remained uncracked for *years* while CSS was just being used for satellite TV; CSS was only knocked over after millions of linux users were left with the alternatives of either someone hacking CSS, or not being able to use products they paid good money for without booting into windows. The "hackers" can sometimes compromise.. but the DVD forum people cared more about control than compromise, and so the LiViD people went around the DVD forum... and we now have DeCSS.

Screw the happy medium.

[twitter]

You claim this about the DVD consortium:

1. They want to recieve license fees for every dvd-capable video player in existence.

2. They want every dvd-capable video player in existence to work by their rules-- i.e., the ones that allow content producers to completely set what it is possible to do with each disc.

I agree, but think you miss the point here:

the linux community" will not truly be happy using a closed source video player-- there will always be the person upset he couldn't play dvds on his 10-year-old sparc because the "approved" propeitary player is x86 and PPC only. But much more importantly, this is a problem because open source platforms inherently empower the user.

That user has every right to be angry, as do you. The DVD consortium has, with help from a few friends, make it a crime for you to figure out how to use your own equipment or even tell others how to do the same. It's a concept that matters and should not be belittled with absurd examples like trying to make a computer that does not have an IDE interface run a DVD player. Trade secrets should have no force outside of a signed contract, and should never trump free speech. My purchasing a DVD player is not equivalent to me signing a contract. "Open" OS only empower users to the extent that they have source code. If you don't have the power to help your friends do things there will be no free code and no Open OS and you will be at the mercy of those who exploit you to maintain tools you can't use.