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'DVD Jon' Acquitted On All Counts in DeCSS Case
Here's John Leyden's story at the Register about the ruling.
LarsBT links to this Reuters newsflash and points out that since Johansen's arrest, "Norway has introduced legislation similar to the European Unions directive on copyright [pdf], making it illegal to circumvent any copyright protection - making it highly unlikely that he would be found not guilty under these new rules."
An anonymous reader writes with some background (or do a search on Slashdot for DeCSS ;)): "Read the DVD-Jon lawsuit story here and here" and notes that "'the prosecution decided to charge Johansen with a data break-in, rather than handle the matter as a copyright case.' The court said that DeCSS could be used both legally and illegally and referred to similar cases outside the computing industry. The court said it was difficult to conclude on Johansen's intentions with DeCSS, but there was no conclusive evidence."
all in norweigian... http://www.digi.no/dtno.nsf/pub/md20030107114651_q iz_14357518
I could be wrong. I'm always wrong...
The ruling came from the norwegian "Tingrett", which is one of the lower courts. Hence, an appeal will almost certainly be made before the two week deadline is up.
It ain't over till the fat geek burps...
The bastard never wrote DeCSS, he merely wrote a GUI. This is a sad day.
Mulling?
It has already passed all the legislative stages in the EU and is now in force. All that matters now is that the member states will incorporate it into their national legislation -- something which they are obliged to do under EU law.
The owls are not what they seem
Sklyarov never got acquitted. He made a deal. Everybody knows what it was. Not exactly the same thing.
The real showdown will be when Norway implements the EUCD directive. Then this verdict could be rather irrelevant as the new laws could make such actions illegal anyway.
"I'd rather have a full bottle in front of me than a full frontal lobotomy"
will not happen. The deadline on the directive passed on 22.12.2002, and since only two countries (Greece and Denmark) made the directive into a national law, it is no longer in effect. The register story on this
LarsBT links to this Reuters newsflash and points out that since Johansen's arrest, "Norway has introduced legislation similar to the European Unions directive on copyright [pdf], making it illegal to circumvent any copyright protection - making it highly unlikely that he would be found not guilty under these new rules."
Norway is not part of the EU, but still takes most new EU-laws and directives and implements them into their own law. The irony of them implementing the Infosoc-directive (Euro-DMCA) mentioned above is that they're almost the only ones doing it. So far, only Denmark (*sigh*) and Greece has implemented the directive.
Anyone who actually read the Aftenposten article will of course know this already.
Also see the articles on CNN and The Register.
Sklyarov wasn't acquitted - he agreed to be a witness for the prosecution in return for immunity. That is a BIG difference.
His company was acquitted, not him. Even if they were, he still spent a certain amount of time in a US jail, away from his family. He will never receive compensation for that time.
So, it seems that the USA and Norway are not equal. Especially as I don't remember a case where Norway attempted to use it's laws against someone not even in the country.
Double jeopardy only applies in criminal trials. In civil trials, the loosing side(s) can appeal.
Eh? The UK has been forced to delay its introduction of the EUCD into the commons because of all the feedback it got, most of it being quite damning of the EUCD.
Enjoy it while it lasts, Jon was found innocent because the laws in Norway haven't been updated to be in concert with the EUCD (Europe's DMCA), which Norway will have to be part of. Once the EUCD is implemented across Europe, his actions would be criminal and he would go to jail. FWIW, the American government is pushing hard for it to be implemented there. For more information on the EUCD, check out http://ukcdr.org/issues/eucd. For good examples of how the DMCA sucks, check out the EFF's unintended consequences list.
Peace,
Chuck
Norway is not a member of the EU. The other nordic nations, that is Sweden, Finland and Denmark, are. European Union
Norway is a member of Nato. Nato
This was a criminal case. JJ was charged for breaking criminal law, paragraph 145, second WhateverTheEnglishTermIs.
There is no such thing as 'double jeopardy' in Norway.
"Rune Kristian Viken" - http://www.nwo.no - arca
Check your history, Shadowlion. The U. S. government interned thousands of American citizens in WWII, simply because they were of Japanese descent. These Americans were deprived of their freedom and property without due process, and they usually went to internment camps like Manzanar without resistence.
Try learning something before you parrot the government propaganda you so readily lap up, you f*cking ignorant bigoted piece of sh*t.
Nope, no, nei, wrong, error!
Norway does not have to implement any EU directives whatsoever. Why? Because they are not a member of the EU
Ehhh, laws (normally) doesn't turn action illegal retroiactively. Only things done AFTER a law is introduced is affected by it.
Acutally, the manufacturer of the Xing DVD player could sue Jon for damages. They have, without dispute, lost A LOT of money after this incident. Not only was their CSS-keys retracted from the market, they also had to pay a fine to the DVD CCA. They are the real losers in this ordeal.
Only Denmark and one other EU country has. So, under current interpretation, DeCSS is legal in Norway, as long as it is used for legal purposes. Using it for piracy is not.
It seems to me that the U.S. government is doing what it wants to do and is making the rules up as it goes along. And yes -- the "media" is buying this and regurgitating just what it's being fed.
On a clear disk you can seek forever
Not really.
The owls are not what they seem
As for that quote, it was something Jon uttered after having been seriously flamed for having stolen Fawkus code, which Fawkus later said he had not.
Employee of Inrupt, Project Release Manager and Community Manager for Solid
This implies (to my untrained legal eye, which nonetheless is legally bound under pain of imprisonment to obey every single law in the land, every E.U. directive, and every libel law in Australia, because ignorance of the law is no excuse) that none of the evidence provided by the prosecution would lead the judges to convict Jon. This is correct. I was a state prosecutor in Florida. I don't know Norwegian law, but in the United States, after the prosecution has presented all its evidence (and sometimes after the defense is presented, too), the defense may make a "Motion for a Judgement of Acquittal" or similar motion. Simply put, the defense is asking the judge to rule that the prosecution hasn't proved the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. This is to prevent the jury from deciding a case where the proseuction hasn't proven a crime under the law, even if the defendant's behavior offended the sensibilities of the jury.
This is my sig. There are many like it but this one is mine.
AFAIK Norway is not a part of the EU, so they do not have to adjust their laws an accordance of the EU.
They might implement it (in this case, I don't see why they should), but they certainly don't have to by any treaty.
Genius doesn't work on an assembly line basis. You can't simply say, "Today I will be brilliant."
That's true in America as well. The Constitution specifically forbids ex post facto laws, meaning that you can't pass a law and then convict people of breaking it before it was enacted.
You should read up on the case. None of the detainees whether US citizen or not are held as POW.
The current administration invented the interesting term "unlawful combatants". A term that has no meaning and is not governed by any international human right standards nor treaties.
A POW is protected by the Geneva Convention. This guarantees that he/she will be treated in a decent way and are not allowed to be questioned and or further prosecuted by the enemy force that holds him or her.
That the US administration states to fight a war yet, denies POW status to enemy combatants is simply scandalous. Just because you fight against an enemy who does not have any respect for human right standards does not mean that you should feel free to abandon those standards yourself.
By doing this the US also sets a precarious precedent. If the US forgoes international law it will encourage other nations to do the same.
The Geneva convention used to be very powerful even Nazi Germany pretty much obeyed it. In recent history it protected the GIs that were taken by Milsovic's Yugoslavian army in the wake of the war on Serbia. The jeopardizing of the Geneva convention exposes a frightening foolishness on part of the current administration (I hope foolishness is all there is to it).
Yes, yup, ja, right, correct!
Sorry that I have to tell you this, but Norway's deal with EU through the EEC deal force Norway to implement a lot of EU directives - including the EUCD.
The Norwegian Department of Culture is expected to release a law proposal in february. If you want to do something about it, join Electronic Frontier Norway.
If J.K.R wrote Windows: Puteulanus fenestra mortalis!
[Jon] never wrote DeCSS, he merely wrote a GUI.
Actually, the fact that he did write a GUI is highly relevant, at least to the MPAA v. 2600 ruling. The DMCA's "circumvention device" provisions (17 USC 1201(a)(2) and (b)) are entirely about how the device is packaged and marketed. The tool was supposed to be a proof of concept for one component of an independent software DVD player on the Linux platform, but because the Linux UDF support wasn't finished, he wrote the GUI on Windows rather than Linux, and the most obvious use for DeCSS on windows was to decrypt VOB files for copying rather than for playback. He should have waited until Linux had working UDF and some other components of a player such as an MPEG-2 decoder, an AC-3 decoder, and a menu bytecode interpreter before releasing the DeCSS component for that player; such a delay would have rendered 2600's "reverse engineering for interoperability" defense stronger.
Will I retire or break 10K?