[ISN] Norwegian Hacker Indicted for Breaking Hollywood DVD Code

From: InfoSec News (isnat_private)
Date: Fri Jan 11 2002 - 10:39:29 PST

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    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.
    
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