Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/01/05/norway_throws_in_the_towel/
Norway throws in the towel in DVD Jon case
No more appeals
Posted in Media, 5th January 2004 14:16 GMT
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Jon Lech Johansen, creator of the DECSS DVD crack, won't be going back to court. The Norwegian Economic Crime Unit (Økokrim) today confirmed that it will not appeal the upholding of his acquittal on copyright charges to the Norway's Supreme Court. To be precise, Økokrim confirmed its withdrawal from the case by failing to lodge an appeal within the requisite deadline.
Which is nice. If entirely expected. Last month, a Norwegian appeals court upheld Johansen's earlier acquittal on all counts of alleged copyright violations, much to the irritation of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).
He 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. Check out Jan Libbenga's report [1] for more detail, including the MPAA's response to the re-acquittal of "serial hacker" DVD Jon. And here is an English translation [2] of a Norwegian report on Johansen's victory, courtesy of a helpful Slashdot contributor. reg;