News DVD-Jon wins new legal victory

From Aftenposten (via Slashdot):

Norway's most famous computer whiz got an early Christmas present on Monday. An appeals court in Oslo upheld Jon Lech Johansen's earlier acquittal on all counts of alleged copyright violations.

A verdict in the case, which has caught international attention, wasn't expected until early January. But the appeals court (Borgarting lagmannsrett) apparently didn't see any need to wait with its decision.

A panel of judges Monday cast aside the appeal that prosecutors had filed to a lower court decision handed down in January. That means the lower court's decision will stand, at least until another eventual appeal takes the case to Norway's supreme court.

The lower court had ruled that Johansen, now 20, did nothing illegal when he helped crack DVD copy protection codes in 1999 and then publicized how he did it. The prosecution had sought a suspended jail term, confiscation of his computer equipment and a fine of NOK 20,000 (less than USD 3,000).

Full article here...


First the RIAA gets slammed with the Kazza & subpoena legalitise, now the MPAA gets told what's what by a judge I think we're all getting early Christams presents this year!

 

ROFL @ J00 . COM

PWNAGE


hehe, 2-0 to the warez wh0res m think

 

This does not mean pirating is ok, you simpleton. It means that the powers in this world who once felt so protected behind their bull****, now are facing the public -- they are losing as you can see; yet it does not legitimise the piratisation of digital media.

 

And it's nice to see too - they might finally remember the age old "The customer is always right" and replace their failed buisness plan

 

Do all teenagers talk like this? And they wonder why nobody takes them seriously....

 

no, they don't, but the ones who do piss me off becuase people don't take seriously the intelligent ones (ie me).

 

Amen to that. And "warez wh0res" piss me off as well, since it is their illegal and pathetic actions that push up the price of software (including PC games, DVDs, CDs, console games and so forth) and encourage the producers to put on all sorts of ridiculous copy protection rubbish. For example, on my PC I have a rip of every CD I own (and no others), for convenience, so I can play them freely within winamp without the hassle of opening the jewel case and risking my lovely CD getting scratched. However there are some CDs which would not allow me to do this, in a futile attempt by the producers to prevent piracy through online sharing of MP3 files. I make a point of not buying these

Another example is DVD protection. If it wasn't for heroes like DVD-Jon, no-one would be able to have a server on their network for DIVX rips of their own DVD discs. Oh, and no-one running Linux would be able to watch a DVD on their PC for that matter. Why? Because the producers felt the need, as a direct result of the rampant piracy of music and film, to make it very difficult for everyone, including the honest consumer, to do anything other than watch a DVD on their sanitised, approved software and hardware.

So thanks, Swafeman, it is an enormous pleasure for me to be subsidising your enjoyment of software and media you haven't paid for and don't deserve, and I'm eternally grateful that a consequence of this is that I can't enjoy my own, fully paid for, material to the full. Oh, and learn to write English, J00 S0C14L L3P3R

 

Woohoo!! What a fantastic result! Well done Jon

It's so nice to see the Recording Industry Ass. of America to get their ass kicked, and even better to have the Motion Picture Ass. of America join them.



PS, it's Kazaa not Kazza.

 

HAHAHAHAHA Preach on!