Forwarded from: Bronc Buster <broncat_private> How sick is this.. http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAM2Y25BWC.html OSLO, Norway (AP) - Prosecutors filed criminal charges Thursday against a Norwegian teen-ager who drew Hollywood's anger by writing and distributing a program that unlocks copy-protected DVDs. After a two-year investigation, authorities indicted Jon Lech Johansen in an important test of Norway's new computer crime laws. Johansen's defenders call the prosecution a wrongheaded attack on intellectual freedom. Creating software that breaks copy-protection schemes, they argue, is not the same as using such programs to steal copyright material. Johansen, who was 15 when he authored the software, has said he did so because only wanted to be able to play movies on his computer. "Software that Jon wrote is something that is necessary for people to be able to exercise their...rights with a DVD," said Robin Gross of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which has provided Johansen's legal defense. Johansen, now 18 and a household name as DVD-Jon in Norway, became a celebrity among computer hackers, who even marched to support him in New York, where a related civil trial was held. -- snip -- - ISN is currently hosted by Attrition.org To unsubscribe email majordomoat_private with 'unsubscribe isn' in the BODY of the mail.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Jan 11 2002 - 17:11:50 PST