'DVD Jon' Acquitted On All Counts in DeCSS Case

benh57 writes "Jon Johansen, the author of DeCSS, has been acquitted on all charges by the Norwegian Supreme Court.' Johansen and his defense attorney Halvor Manshaus won on all counts, with the Oslo court ruling that Johansen did nothing wrong when he helped cracked the code on a DVD that was his own personal property.'" Here's Aftenposten's story, in English. Read on below for some more links, and please post others in the comments. Update: 01/07 14:02 GMT by T : Reader Torstein Grotnes writes with a correction: The court which cleared Johansen is not Norway's Supreme Court, but rather "the 'tingrett' which is two steps below 'supreme court' level."

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."

Comments

Re:What a surprise!

[Shadowlion]

That feels like such a hollow thing to say when thousands have disappeared from US streets to be held secretly (and legally) in internment camps.

Yes, thousands of... illegal aliens, who have no right being in this country in the first place. If you want to get into the US, you do it legally -- you fill out the proper visa forms, you get the approval of the INS, and you immigrate according to the legal structure. Can't afford it? Government won't let you? Tough cookies.

What's all the hubbub.....bub

[filmcritic]

This means nothing to the law abiding US citizen. All it means is that the Norwegian courts are out of their minds. Don't even think the lawyers here will give up because they will not. Everyone knows that his little program was specifically written to rip DVD content so that it could be copied elsewhere. And don't give us that standard line of horseshit about doing what you want with your stuff either. If he wanted to watch his little DVD, he could use a set-top box like 99% of the public or use Windows, like 99% of the public. It's not as though there isn't an easy method of viewing DVDs.

Get over your bullshit attitude about stealing every piece of electronic media. Just because it's electronic or digital does not mean it's yours for the taking. Remember - in the real world, we pay for the things we own because that is how things work. We also don't give a shit that we legally cannot make 25 copies of Spider-man to give out to our friends. We just pay the nice man at the register $15 and walk out. Just WAIT until all you little college kiddies get out of school...wait until you have to pay back the $50,000 it cost. Wait! Here's a suggestion: because obviously everything you learned in college isn't useful, just tell the bank you will only pay them for the parts you found useful. Then college will only cost $1000...fuck them! Go ahead, try it!!! I bet it would work...why not...it always works in the slashdot/linux world.

Linux is dead in less than 3 years - an afterthought on a page of history.