From Tom's Hard News...
Trial has begun in Oslo, Norway for a Norwegian youth charged with overwriting and breaking a program for unlocking the security codes of copy-protected DVDs. Jon Lech Johansen pleaded innocent on Monday to the charge of breaking data security laws. Johansen, now 19, was 15 years old when he reportedly wrote a program called DeCSS, which unlocked the Content Scrambling System (CSS) security codes put in place to prohibit unauthorized duplication of DVD technology. Johansen claims that he received the basic security codes from other members of a hacker network located outside Norway, and that his only purpose for using the security codes was to combine them into a program that would enable him to watch DVDs on his Linux-based computer. However, DeCSS allows users that have not paid for DVDs to copy and share DVD files over the Internet. Johansen's simply written program is one of many programs readily available that are capable of cracking DVD security codes.
It is interesting to note that charges were not filed against Johansen until after Norwegian prosecutors received a complaint from the United States' Motion Picture Association of America. Johansen's attorney contends that first of all, his client can't be convicted of hacking into a DVD that he had already paid for and had title to, and secondly, that "Johansen did not break the security code." The prosecution decided to charge Johansen with a data break-in, rather than handle the matter as a copyright case. The Oslo prosecutor in the case claims that Johansen and his hacking friends were part of an "international crime network" operating on the Internet from Germany, England, Russia and The Netherlands. If convicted, Johansen could be sentenced to up to two years in prison, plus fines and damages compensation.
Trial has begun in Oslo, Norway for a Norwegian youth charged with overwriting and breaking a program for unlocking the security codes of copy-protected DVDs. Jon Lech Johansen pleaded innocent on Monday to the charge of breaking data security laws. Johansen, now 19, was 15 years old when he reportedly wrote a program called DeCSS, which unlocked the Content Scrambling System (CSS) security codes put in place to prohibit unauthorized duplication of DVD technology. Johansen claims that he received the basic security codes from other members of a hacker network located outside Norway, and that his only purpose for using the security codes was to combine them into a program that would enable him to watch DVDs on his Linux-based computer. However, DeCSS allows users that have not paid for DVDs to copy and share DVD files over the Internet. Johansen's simply written program is one of many programs readily available that are capable of cracking DVD security codes.
It is interesting to note that charges were not filed against Johansen until after Norwegian prosecutors received a complaint from the United States' Motion Picture Association of America. Johansen's attorney contends that first of all, his client can't be convicted of hacking into a DVD that he had already paid for and had title to, and secondly, that "Johansen did not break the security code." The prosecution decided to charge Johansen with a data break-in, rather than handle the matter as a copyright case. The Oslo prosecutor in the case claims that Johansen and his hacking friends were part of an "international crime network" operating on the Internet from Germany, England, Russia and The Netherlands. If convicted, Johansen could be sentenced to up to two years in prison, plus fines and damages compensation.