DeCSS author, DVD Jon gets new date in court

April 2, 2003

DeCSS the first application that was able to circumvent the copy protection used on DVDs, allowing to make backups, intentionally made to play DVDs with Linux, was written in only a several lines of code. As the application seems to be so simple, the legal issues around it, are far from this. The Motion Picture Association of America has sued the author, Jon Johansen (also known as DVD Jon), but the Norwegian court ruled that the MPAA could not prove that DeCSS had been designed for illegal activities. In December 2003 there will be the appeal hearing of this case.

In January, an Oslo court acquitted 19-year-old Jon Johansen, dubbed "DVD Jon," of charges that he developed a computer program that enabled mass copying of movies on DVD digital discs.
Hollywood studios accused Johansen of developing the software and posting his findings on the Internet.
Johansen's attorney, Halvor Manshaus, said he had received a letter from the Borgarting appeals court on Tuesday, saying it had set aside eight days from December 2 for the appeal hearing.