THE WEIRDNESS OF REV.JIM!

DVD Court Decision

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Norwegian teen acquitted in DVD code-cracking case Judge says breaking into one's own property isn't criminal

01/08/2003
Associated Press
OSLO, Norway – Hollywood didn't get its happy ending Tuesday when a Norwegian court acquitted a teenager of digital burglary charges for creating and circulating online a program that cracks the security codes on DVDs.
The ruling, the latest setback in the entertainment industry's drive to curtail illegal copying of its movies, was a key test in how far copyright holders can go in preventing the duplication of their intellectual property.
Jon Lech Johansen, who was 15 when he developed and posted the program on the Internet in late 1999, said he developed the software only to watch movies on a Linux-based computer that lacked DVD-viewing software.
"I'm extremely satisfied," said Mr. Johansen. "Most of those who have watched the case from the outside have said nothing criminal happened."
Mr. Johansen, now 19, said he would celebrate by watching DVDs using similar code-cracking software.
Head Judge Irene Sogn said people cannot be convicted of breaking into their own property. Judge Sogn said prosecutors failed to prove that Mr. Johansen or others had used the program to access illegal copies of films.
"The court finds that someone who buys a DVD film that has been legally produced has legal access to the film. Something else would apply if the film had been an illegal ... pirate copy," the three-member Oslo City Court said in a unanimous 25-page ruling.
The Motion Picture Association of America, which had encouraged the prosecution, had no comment, a spokeswoman in Washington said.
The decision was only the latest setback for the entertainment industry in its efforts to discourage the digital distribution of its wares.
Last week, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor lifted a stay that prohibited the posting of similar DVD decryption programs on the Internet.
And last March, a Dutch appeals court cleared copyright-infringement charges against KaZaA, a maker of computer software that lets people download music, movies and other copyright-protected material.
Although the decision is legally binding only in Norway, it "will be referred to in other cases because there have not been many," said Haakon Wium Lie, a member of the Electronic Frontier Norway.