Jon Johansen To Be Retried On Piracy Charges

cecil36 writes "Yahoo has the scoop on 'DVD Jon's' latest trial regarding DeCSS being used as a piracy tool. The article claims that Hollywood is losing $3 billion a year due to piracy *yawn*, but Johansen's lawyer believes the acquittal from the previous trial may be enough for him to win the case. The case is set to go again on December 2nd this year. What are the prospects of Johansen winning a second time?"

Comments

What's their beef?

[Stonan]

'Prosecutors in January lodged an appeal, objecting to the application of the law and the presentation of evidence. '

If they object to the law, shouldn't that be debated by government reps? I don't think a judge has the authority to ignore the law.

Objection of evidence presentation should have been done at the time the evidence was introduced, shouldn't it? Just because your legal team didn't think of a 'snappy comeback' at the appropriate time isn't a reason for a 'do-over' (IMHO).

DVD Playback on Linux

[jthorpe]

Whilst I'm aware of a few programs that use DeCSS for copying DVDs to formats such as DivX, removing the CSS, what if DeCSS was used legitimitely in a piece of software such as a DVD player that contained a binary form of the decoder and was not capable of pirating DVDs? I pose this question because I am currently developing a small Linux distro and there are some really good pieces of software around that allow the playback of DVD. I would like to include such software, but not at the expense of a court battle.

What deems DeCSS illegal (in terms of the MPAA)? If I were to (for example) compile Xine , Mplayer or Ogle with DeCSS support compiled into the programs by means of a static version of the library, the program will still play DVDs as normal, but the DeCSS code could not be used for anything else on the system because the library does not have to exist on the computer, besides inside the player itself. In doing this, am I breaking the law, or at risk of having the MPAA onto me?

Chances he'll win (and be appealed again) is high

[Kjella]

Basicly, this appeals court is reviewig his case based on the law as-is, i.e. the question of guilt. With the same interpretation of the law as last time, he should undoubtably win.

However, I'm certain the prosecution will appeal to the Supreme Court, because of the principal nature of the case. This court is deciding what the correct interpretation of the law is, which is ultimately what is in question here.

Personally, I think it works out pretty good. In the US the prosecution could make ten DMCA charges, and even if they'd get thrown out in the first court, but you'd still tie them up in court and there'd be no precedent set. Not appealing in a Norwegian court would basicly be admitting to having no case. And if they do appeal, they risk getting a precedent against them. Personally I think that's fine. The first meritful case goes up to the Supreme Court, not some posterchild case for either side.

I hope for the Supreme Court to reject the prosecutions appeal (on the ruling in this trial, which I assume DVD-Jon will win). That's about as much egg-on-face factor as you can get. And they deserve it. It's coming from the same group of geniuses that wanted to ban anonymous email.

Kjella

Chances are good.

[famebait]

"What are the prospects of Johansen winning a second time?"

I'd say it's almost certain. The previous aquittal was crystal clear. I think they're appealing mainly to build some strong case law.

Re:Chances are good.

[zokum]

I explained this the last time there was a post on DVD-Jon, but this is how it works in Norway:
There are 3 levels of courts in Norway, plus the human-rights thingy in Haag, NL. Both sides may appeal a court's decision. When this is done, it is moved one level up in the "ladder" The courts then decided whether to take the case, or dismiss it, letting the old verdict stand. The supreme court very rarely takes on cases, so in effect you got max two trials. This is probably a much more fair system than the US one, since you can appeal an "obviously" bad decision, and there are no loopholes for people who are later found to be guilty.
Additionally, each level of courts are more "thorough"/experienced have a better jury system. etc. This allows for small things to get done swiftly, but if needed, any side can appeal, and get a new verdict by a different court.
The courts are these (roughly):
1. Byretten (city court)
2. Lagmannsretten (lay-man-court)
3. Høyesterett (supreme court)
The 2nd one is a bit hard to translate, it involves lay-men as judges i think, as part of the process to determine the verdict. A good page, in Norwegian, unfortunatly that explains a lot of expressions can be found on: http://www.nored.no/offentlighet/ord.html I guess you can search on terms there as there are prolly some good explanations of those on the web, although my googles didn't return much useful.

If you're interested in more details, just reply and I will do my best to explain.