"DVD cracker indicted"

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I remember we discussed this topic before, so heres a bit of an update on the matter- it seems law enforcement(in Norway at least) are willing to prosecute!

DVD cracker indicted for DeCSS program
By Lisa M. Bowman
ZDNet News
January 11, 2002 6:47 AM PT

Two years after police stormed into his home and seized his computer, a Norwegian teenager has been indicted on security cracking charges.
Jon Johansen, who helped create software that makes it possible to crack DVD security, faces up to two years in jail on charges originally designed to protect phone and bank records. On Wednesday, Norway's economic crime unit accused Johansen of trying to break through a security system to gain access to material he's not entitled to, in this case a movie on DVD.

"It did come as quite a surprise," said Robin Gross, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who's been helping Johansen navigate the legal quagmire created since his program, DeCSS, first raised the ire of movie studios. Hollywood feared the program would lead to rampant copying of DVDs.

Gross said the charges mark the first time the Norwegian security law has been used to pursue someone for breaking into material he already owns, relegating movies on DVD to the same status as private banking records.

"The Norwegian government finally succumbed to the pressure of Hollywood," she said.

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) said it has been cooperating with Norwegian authorities and has had an attorney in that country working on the issue since the onset of the case. But a spokeswoman refuted charges that the studios had unduly influenced Norwegian prosecutors.

"Sadly it appears that there are still those who have a perpensity to blame the law, law enforcement and courts every time the law is applied to legal conduct," said MPAA spokeswoman Emily Kutner.

Neither Johansen nor the Norwegian authorities could be reached for comment.

Norwegian law enforcement officials, at the prompting of American movie studios, first arrested Johansen in January 2000 in connection with his DeCSS program. He was later released.

However, DeCSS quickly spawned a series of movie industry-backed lawsuits in the United States against people who linked to or posted the code on the Web. Johansen testified during the federal case, but so far judges have sided with Hollywood and deemed the posting of DeCSS illegal.

adeypius

I wonder will the Motion Picture Association of America
now go after all the companies that produce DVD players
that can be cracked or coded or press a few keys on the
remote, to make the machine multi region or unlock the
macrovision.

I dont think so , they'll go after some small fry but not big business.