Contact: Robin Gross, IP Justice Executive Director
             robin@ipjustice.org  +1 415.553.6261
               Halvor Manshaus, Johansen's Attorney, Advokatfirmaet Schjødt AS
              halvor.manshaus@schjodt.no   + 47 22 01 88 00
 

"DVD-Jon" Defeats Hollywood
Consumer Rights Upheld in Norway

(Oslo) A Norwegian appeals court today cleared Jon Johansen (20) of all charges for viewing his lawfully purchased DVDs on a DVD player that is not approved of by the Hollywood movie studios.

The appellate panel of 7 judges and data experts unanimously upheld a January 2003 ruling from an Oslo City Court acquitting Johansen on all counts and rejecting the prosecutor’s theory that Johansen was guilty of violating Norwegian Criminal Code Section 145.2, which outlaws breaking into digital data that one has no right to access.  Because Johansen accessed his own DVD and did not commit any copyright infringement the city court found Johansen innocent on all counts and the appellate court affirmed the reasoning.  Johansen’s case marked the first time this Norwegian law was used to prosecute someone for accessing his own property.

The appeals court noted that consumers have a fair use right to make back-up copies of their DVD movies, particularly since DVDs can be easily damaged with only a scratch.  Hollywood is pushing many foreign countries (including Norway) to change their domestic copyright laws to outlaw bypassing technical restrictions on digital media and eliminate consumers' private copying rights.  Similar to the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), the EU Copyright Directive is currently pending before most European countries' parliaments and has already been ratified in Greece, Denmark, Italy, Austria, Germany, and the UK.  Both the EU Intellectual Property Enforcement Directive and the Free Trade Area of the America (FTAA) Treaty are currently being negotiated and include proposals to outlaw legitimate consumer circumvention more broadly than the DMCA.

"It is delightful to see the Norwegian courts stand up to Hollywood and defend the rights of its citizens to engage in lawful, but unauthorized, uses of DVD movies," said IP Justice Executive Director Robin D. Gross.  "Both the Norwegian city and appeals courts have wisely recognized that when you buy a DVD, you own it; and Hollywood does not have the right to tell you how you may use your property," explained the intellectual property attorney based in San Francisco.

Johansen was represented on appeal by Halvor Manshaus from the Oslo law firm Advokatfirmaet Schjødt, who also defended Johansen at the lower court.

"The ruling draws up the line of demarcation between the interests of owners and distributors of intellectual property on the one side, and consumers on the other," stated Manshaus.  "The court mentions that optical storage media easily can be damaged, making it important for consumers to have the option of making a back-up copy within already defined "fair-use" terms. In addition, the Court states that although DeCSS can be used to make illegal copies, this was not the intent of Johansen, nor has he made copies in violation of intellectual property regulations," Manshaus added.

Johansen was first charged by the Norwegian Economic Crime Unit (OKOKRIM) who raided his family's home at the request of the Motion Picture Association in 2000.  After the Oslo City Court acquitted Johansen in January 2003, Hollywood pressured Norwegian prosecutors to appeal the decision and the retrial was scheduled to begin on December 2nd and wrapped up on the 11th.

At 15, Johansen helped to create DeCSS, a computer program that unlocks DVDs in 1999 and first published it on the Internet.  DeCSS was written as part of an effort to build an open source software DVD player for the Linux operating system and set off a fire-storm of Hollywood lawsuits to ban the software’s publication in 1999 and 2000.

 The penalty for breaking this Norwegian law is two years in prison if convicted.  Prosecutors will decide within two weeks if they wish to appeal the ruling to the Norwegian Supreme Court.

More Information on Johansen DeCSS Prosecution:

December 22, 2003 Appeals Court Decision Translated Into English:
http://www.ipjustice.org/johansen/DVD-Jon-Borgarting-1-eng.pdf
http://www.ipjustice.org/johansen/DVD-Jon-Borgarting-1-eng.doc

December 22, 2003 Norwegian Appeals Court Decision (in Norwegian):
http://www.ipjustice.org/johansen/122203_Johansen_Ruling.pdf

December 8, 2003 IP Justice Media Release on Johansen Retrial
http://www.ipjustice.org/media/release20031208_en.shtml

December 2, 2003 IP Justice Media Release on Johansen Retrial:
http://www.ipjustice.org/media/release20031202_en.shtml

March 3, 2003 IP Justice Media Release on Johansen Retrial:
http://www.ipjustice.org/030303.dvd.shtml

January 20, 2003 IP Justice Media Release on Appeal of Johansen Acquittal:
http://www.ipjustice.org/010703.shtml

January 7, 2003 IP Justice Media Release on Johansen's Acquittal:
http://www.ipjustice.org/010703.shtml

See IP Justice timeline of DeCSS litigation:
http://www.ipjustice.org/publications/decsstable.htm

Jon Johansen's page:
http://www.nanocrew.net/

Norway's draft legislation to implement the EUCD:
http://odin.dep.no/kkd/norsk/aktuelt/hoeringssaker/paa_hoering/
043061-080066/index-ram003-b-n-a.html#ram3

January 2003 Court Decision Acquitting Johansen (in Norwegian):
http://www.ipjustice.org/johansen/01092003.pdf
http://www.ipjustice.org/johansen/01092003.rtf

January 2000 Court Decision Acquitting Johansen (translated into English):
http://www.ipjustice.org/johansen/01092003_English.rtf

Original complaint against Jon and Per Johansen in Norwegian (Jan. 4, 2000):
 http://www.ipjustice.org/johansen/01042000.pdf

 English translation of original complaint against Jon and Per Johansen (Jan. 4, 2000):
 http://www.eff.org/IP/Video/DeCSS_prosecutions/Johansen_DeCSS_case/
 20000104_dvdcca_no_prosecutor_letter.en.html

 Electronic Frontier Norway:
 http://www.efn.no/

 Jon Johansen's defense fund:
 http://www.eff.org/support/jonfund.html

 Electronic Frontier Foundation's Johansen Case Archive:
 http://www.eff.org/IP/Video/DeCSS_prosecutions/Johansen_DeCSS_case/

 OKOKRIM:
 http://www.okokrim.no/

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.