Jon Johansen acquitted [LWN.net]

Jon Johansen, one of the developers responsible for the creation and distribution of the DeCSS code, has been found not guilty of all of the charges which had been pressed against him in a Norwegian court. According to the court, if you buy a film on DVD, you have the right to access that film, even if you do not use the tools envisioned by the entertainment industry. In one country, at least, the DeCSS code is legal.

This particular case may not be done yet, since Norwegian law apparently allows the prosecution to appeal an acquittal. It is, however, a major victory; the court looked at the fundamental issues and ruled in favor of freedom.

Mr. Johansen's acquittal, along with the ElcomSoft acquittal, gives rise to hope that 2003 may be the year in which the intellectual property takeover tide is turned. People (and courts) are seeing beyond the piracy rhetoric and looking at the real costs of increasing power over information. Maybe, just maybe, this particular power grab can be stopped before it's too late.

That outcome is far from assured, however. Proposed legislation worldwide threatens to impose DMCA-like anti-circumvention measures, and the CBDTPA will certainly return to the U.S. Senate. The entertainment industry is still flush with money and lawyers, and has shown no signs of changing its approach; Jack Valenti is still calling for "speed bumps to keep people honest." A couple of important - if small - battles have been won, but the real fight is just beginning. As beginnings go, however, this is a nice one.

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Jon Johansen acquitted

Posted Jan 9, 2003 9:58 UTC (Thu) by ekj (subscriber, #1524) [Link]

Unfortunately I think you are way too optimistic. I see no signs what so ever that the tide of ever increasing "control" is about to turn. 1 step forward and 10 steps back does not constitute progress.

To the contrary I suspect that this is an example of a situation that will have to become much worse before people will (hopefully) wake up and start to care enough about these issues to turn back the tide.

It is true that Jon was acquitted. But this was under old laws, before we implemented the EU-DMCA (named something else, but to the same effect) over here. Only two countries, Denmark and Greece, have done so this far, but the other EU countries are also required to implement similar legislation. I think it will take a near-miracle to stop this from happening.

If so, then someone doing the same thing Jon could legally do in 1998, will be convicted.