"DVD-Jon" Faces Retrial

An anonymous reader submits: "Norway's special division for white-collar crimes, Økokrim, has decided to appeal the acquittal of 19-year-old Jon Lech Johansen, accused of copyright violation for helping bypass DVD code protection, web site Nettavisen reports."

Comments

A bit surprised

[halftrack]

As a Norwegian I'm a bit surprised that Økokrim appealed the sentence. It's normal for prosecution to appeal, but in this case it was a pretty clear acquittal. However the background for the appeal is (as the article states) not ready yet.

However my concerne now is that if the appeal goes through (I believe that - in Norway - most appeals at this level do) it will be tried in front of a jury, which means this case can be on hold for ever. In the previous instance they had trouble finding only 2 laymen who could understand the technicalities of the case.

Re:A bit surprised

[halftrack]

IANANL, but this is how I believe it is.

The norwegian system is built up by three stages: Tingretten, Lagmansretten and Høyesterett (the supreme court.) In that order. The first instance - where Johansen was acquited - consisted of one professional judge and two laymen. The second instance consists of a jury with where a person must be found guilty by at least half the members (or maybe it was 2/3.) The supreme court is much like the american with 7 (I think) professional judges.

There is no such thing as double jeopardy in Norway, but you don't automatically get a re-trial based on an appeal. Between the first two stages (where the case is now) I believe it's possible to appeal simply because you disagree. This means that if you can argue your appeal well, introduce new evidence or something like that you get a re-trial. However you can only appeal to the supreme court based on wrong utilisation of the law, interpertation of the law or technical errors in which they can either order a re-trial, adjust the sentence or dismiss the case.

Now I've probably missed a great deal of points and said things that aren't correct, but this should enlighten you're view on the Norwegian courts. (Which believe it or not differ from the American.)

Re:Is that even legal?

[Dr.Zong]

It is not considered Double Jeopardy, it is only an appeal...

1) You cannot be tried for the *same* crime twice, however, prosecutors can amend or change the crimes in which you are being tried for ie: you are no longer tried for the murder of Joe, just maybe a nice inditement of manslaughter.

2)Double Jeopardy doesn't count on appeal. Normally the losing side can appeal if there was a trial error or they want to fight a ruling the judge made on a point in the trial (including evidence that shouldn't have been, allowing a surprise witness - a procedural error).

3) Unlike the Movie - you CAN'T be tried and convicted for killing someone (for instance) and then actually kill them. Those are actually TWO separate crimes. Makes for a good movie, but the law isn't paid attention to. That's where you just have to sue the state for negligence, or whatever fancy scheme you can get your lawyer to concoct.

server melting.... melting....

[JeanBaptiste]

"DVD-Jon" faces retrial Norway's special division for white-collar crimes, Økokrim, has decided to appeal the acquittal of 19-year-old Jon Lech Johansen, accused of copyright violation for helping bypass DVD code protection, web site Nettavisen reports. Johansen was acquitted on all counts of piracy and distribution of the code-breaking program. Johansen has argued that his programming work was designed to play DVDs, which he purchased, on a computer with the Linux operating system, something the copy protection would not allow. The head of Økokrim's computer crimes division said that the reasons for the appeal would be in their offices Monday afternoon. Johansen's counsel, Halvor Manshaus, said he was not surprised by Økokrim's decision. "There were signals from Økokrim quite early, that they would appeal and that they see this case as dealign with an important principle. We believe that the first verdict was extremely thorough, but that doesn't prevent them from appealing," Manshaus told Nettavisen. Aftenposten English Web Desk

Re:Sven, we cood be famoos, yah?

[dbc]

I hate to be pedantic, but as a life-long Norsky-watcher I feel I must correct your misaprehension of Norsky -- a Norsky would not say "thees", he'd say "tis" with a very hard "t" and short "i" -- a Minnesota native from Daloot or da range would more likely say "dis".

And if you don't believe me, I'll introduce you to my mother-in-law, for whom "Ja" is a four sylable word with a two octave range, and who did not understand any of the dialect jokes in "Fargo", because that *is* the way she talks.

Re:You can appeal an ACQUITTAL in Norway?

[Isle]

Actually this is not the same as in the US, I know because we have the same law in Denmark. Basically any result of a lower court can be appealed to a higher court granted that the higher court wishes to take the case.

We had a case of a man who was first acquited by a city court then found guilty by a national court. But he fled to England and now can't be extradicted, because according to a brittish law, you can't be tried for same crime twice. (in america this is called double jepardy)