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December 2, 2003 Contact: Robin Gross, IP Justice Executive Director Jon Johansen Retrial Begins in Oslo Appeals Court (Oslo) Norwegian Jon Johansen today faces the retrial of his acquittal for reverse-engineering DVD technology and creating DeCSS in 1999. DeCSS is computer software that Johansen and others wrote in an effort to build an independent DVD player for the Linux operating system. The publication of DeCSS onto the Internet spurred lawsuits against hundreds of web publishers living all over the world for its re-publication. In January 2003, a three-judge panel in Oslo rejected charges brought by the Norwegian Economic Crime Unit (OKOKRIM) against Johansen for accessing his DVD movies using an independently created DVD player. OKOKRIM appealed the loss and Johansen’s retrial is scheduled to begin on December 2, 2003 in Oslo and end December 11, 2003. Since Johansen’s case is one of first impression, it is not unusual for the case to be retried on an appeal in Norway. The court also rejected Hollywood’s claim that it has the right to control the way in which an individual views a DVD after purchase. "The court finds that someone who buys a DVD film that has been legally produced has legal access to the film," the January 2003 ruling said. The charges OKOKRIM filed against Johansen were brought under the Norwegian criminal code section 145.2, which outlaws bypassing technological restrictions to access data that one is not entitled to access. Johansen's prosecution is the first time that this law has been used to prosecute a person for accessing his own property. This data theft law has been used in the past only to prosecute those who illegally access another's bank or phone records or data that they have no lawful right to access. The penalty for violating this law is two years in prison. The Motion Picture Association filed the original complaint with OKOKRIM calling for Johansen’s prosecution in 2000, when he was 15-years old. "If Johansen's acquittal is over-turned on appeal, it will become illegal for Norwegians to bypass DVD region code restrictions or technical restrictions that prevent fast-forwarding over advertisements, or otherwise circumvent digital controls on their own property," said IP Justice Executive Director Robin Gross. As a member of the European Economic Association, Norway is currently considering legislation to implement the European Union Copyright Directive (EUCD), although the Norwegian draft would permit consumer circumvention for playback. Johansen is represented on appeal by Oslo attorney Halvor Manshaus, who earned Johansen’s acquittal in January. "I am confident with regards to the final outcome of this case - the facts have not changed, and the legal principles stand even stronger as consumers understand the restrictive nature of the CSS license scheme," said Manshaus. "Two expert judges from the commercial and the academic arenas have been called in to assist the court, all together consisting of seven judges," added the attorney with Oslo firm Advokatfirmaet Schjødt AS. In November 2003, Johansen published a new computer program called "QTFairUse" that allows consumers to make digital fair use of their Apple iTunes music collections by legally opening a music file and then saving it as an unrestricted file. QTFairUse is only foundational software since it leaves the music file in an unplayable format and needs additional software to actually play the music. But QTFairUse is published under an Open Source license enabling others to freely build upon it and incorporate the code into new applications and devices. More Information on Johansen DeCSS litigation and QTFairUse:
IP Justice is an international civil liberties organization that promotes balanced intellectual property laws. IP Justice defends consumer rights to use digital media worldwide and is a non-profit organization based in San Francisco. IP Justice was founded in 2002 by Robin Gross, who serves as its Executive Director. To learn more about IP Justice, visit the website at http://www.ipjustice.org.
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