An appeal against the acquittal of Norwegian computer wunderkind Jon Lech Johansen, creator of the DeCSS DVD decryption program, was recently dismissed and it has now been announced that he won't be going back to court to face any further appeal.The Norwegian Economic Crime Unit (Økokrim) has confirmed that it will not appeal against the acquittal on copyright infringement charges to Norway's Supreme Court. Økokrim confirmed its withdrawal from the case by failing to lodge an appeal within the requisite deadline. Johansen was alleged to have broken the law by writing and publishing a DVD descrambling program, DeCSS, so that he could watch films he owned on a Linux PC. It earned him the nickname DVD Jon.
The IPKat, having waded through the tortuous text of the first instance decision in Public Prosecutor v Johansen [2003] ECDR 309 (the appeal decision is not yet available in English), is not surprised that there will be no further appeal. The provisions of the Norwegian Penal Code under which the prosecution was brought were drafted long before the current era of sophisticated computing and were plainly not up to the task of securing a conviction.
More on DeCSS here, here and here
Briefs for the USA DeCSS case here, here and here
A DVD about the john
The IPKat, having waded through the tortuous text of the first instance decision in Public Prosecutor v Johansen [2003] ECDR 309 (the appeal decision is not yet available in English), is not surprised that there will be no further appeal. The provisions of the Norwegian Penal Code under which the prosecution was brought were drafted long before the current era of sophisticated computing and were plainly not up to the task of securing a conviction.
More on DeCSS here, here and here
Briefs for the USA DeCSS case here, here and here
A DVD about the john
NO FURTHER APPEAL AGAINST ACQUITTAL OF DVD JON
![NO FURTHER APPEAL AGAINST ACQUITTAL OF DVD JON]()
Reviewed by Jeremy
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Tuesday, January 06, 2004
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