Jon Johansen, 19, was 15 when he allegedly co-authored and
distributed free of charge a program called DeCSS, which is used to
compromise the Content Scramble System (CSS), a copy-protection
system found on DVDs, designed to prevent unauthorised duplication
of their content.
The case was brought by Norwegian prosecutors, following
prompting by the country's entertainment industry and the Motion
Picture Association of America, which represents all major
Hollywood studios.
The teenager is accused of violating a Norwegian data security
law prohibiting the unauthorised compromising of computer security
systems. The maximum penalty for the offence is two years'
imprisonment and fines.
Johansen has denied any wrongdoing. He said he was sent DVD
security codes from abroad by other hackers and that he only
combined them to create a program enabling him to watch DVDs on his
Linux-based computer which, unlike computers running Windows and
Macintosh, lacked DVD-viewing software. The teenager also claims
that he only used the program once, to view a DVD he bought
legally.
The prosecutors and the studios, on the other hand, claim that
the DeCSS program can also be used to copy and share DVD files on
the internet, and therefore violates copyright laws. In the opening
of the trial yesterday, the prosecutors compared the hacker group
with an international criminal network.
They also claimed that, in the first three months after DeCSS
was posted on the internet, more than 5,000 copies of the program
were downloaded.
The Oslo District Court is currently hearing arguments and the
trial is expected to last for five days.
