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Update On The Jon Johansen Trial 194

Posted by timothy from the thanks-mister-hoy-thanks-a-lot dept.
nordicfrost writes "The trial against Jon Johansen goes on. Today, John Hoy of the DVD CCA was examined by phone by the defense and the prosecutor in Oslo. We have set up a page to follow the main events in the trial here, in English. The documentation of evidence, and the fact that Hoy didn't answer the phone when the court called, delayed the trial so the final proceedings may not be finished before Monday afternoon." Update: 12/12 23:50 GMT by T : This wasn't really a Science story ...
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Update On The Jon Johansen Trial More

Update On The Jon Johansen Trial

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  • I'm glad they set up a page in English, for 99% of slashdot readers can only read english.

    • Re:Good thing (Score:1, Redundant)

      by neksys ( 87486 )
      The world isn't designed for Slashdot readers. Fool.
    • Hmm,

      I speak English,Spanish, Portequese, and a smattering of french. Born and bred in the US.

      I would say that comment is far from the truth though. Even though Slashdot is a US based site so english the language and maybe the rest of you guys are interlopers. So why should citizens of an English Speaking country, visiting an english speaking site, be expected to speak another language? You like slashdot, so you read it in English.

      I tend to disagree with that comment because with all the anti-american sentiment that floats around here that most people are foreigners(Canadians included). So I would say I good many of us speak another language.

      I agree that many people in the US dont have another language when they should.

      1. They dont see the necessity, as English is the dominant business language in the world. You need it for international business.
      2. You go anywhere and people speak English because we are big tourists.
      3.The US is not in proximity with other countries so we do not have the necessity or luck of having to learn another langauge. Europe you guys are all bordered next to each other, short hops in between, easy to travel. Easy to learn another langauge.

      I think you are trolling. 45% of the US speaks spanish I beleive. We latinos are falling out the woodwork.

      And most people on slashdot are fairly intelligent, including us North Americans, well traveled, and gasp, speak other languages.

      We aint as dumb as you think. Course then Germans are all Nazis, Italian women are all Harry, I could go on.

      Jeez

      Puto
      • <tongue in="cheek">

        Smattering = smatter.
        English Speaking = English-speaking.

        "I tend to disagree with that comment--"
        You get the comment a lot, then?

        "because with all the anti-american sentiment that floats around here that most people are foreigners(Canadians included)"

        Oh, the prejudiced foreigners. I'm sure everyone is suitably sorry to have tread on your mighty country.

        "You go anywhere and people speak English because we are big tourists."

        No, they speak English because the tourists don't speak any other languages.

        "The US is not in proximity with other countries so we do not have the necessity or luck of having to learn another langauge."

        French. Spanish. Hawaiian.

        "--bordered next to each other--Easy to learn another langauge."

        Unfortunately agains common beliefs, being in motion doesn't make you learn faster.

        " 45% of the US speaks spanish I beleive."

        No, it's 95%. Of the latino group.

        "Italian women are all Harry"

        I don't even want to go there.

        </tongue>

        • Re: Pass it along. (Score:2, Interesting)

          by jjo ( 62046 )
          "You go anywhere and people speak English because we are big tourists."

          No, they speak English because the tourists don't speak any other languages.

          No, it's because English is the new lingua franca. Anyone who wants to get along in international business had better learn English. Even businessmen with no customers in anglophone countries learn English, because it's the new common tongue. I once spoke with an anti-aircraft artilleryman in the Finnish military. To learn about the complex systems his unit uses, he had go to classes where they were manufactured: in Russia and France. What language do you think the classes were held in? English, of course!

          This is not to say that Americans should not learn more foreign languages (I myself speak French, German and Italian), but we are often in the enviable position of being able to expect other people to learn our language. This is, of course, unfair, but it's also reality.

          • Re: Pass it along. (Score:2, Insightful)

            by WowTIP ( 112922 )
            ...where they were manufactured: in Russia...

            They buy their AA-weaponry from the guys they are most likely to use them at? Weird.
            • Actually that wouldn't supprise me.. for the longest time the radar used to detect incomming nukes from the USSR was fitted with replacement vacume tubes from the USSR.

              International politics are rarely ever logical.
              • Ooops .. forgot to mention that was the NORAD early warning system the tubes were fitted in making it the US and Canada's joint project that still has that wonderfull leap of logic in place.
          • This is not to say that Americans should not learn more foreign languages

            We Americans all know a foreign language. It's English, after all.
      • "3.The US is not in proximity with other countries so we do not have the necessity or luck of having to learn another langauge. Europe you guys are all bordered next to each other, short hops in between, easy to travel. Easy to learn another langauge."

        Better understanding of this point right here would probably reduce some of the negative stereotypes about Americans. The US is HUGE. We're not self centered, we're overloaded with what we have. We're not geographically ignorant, we have enough to know about the US before branching out into other countries. (I couldn't point to Afghanistan on a map any more than a German could point to Kansas City.)

        I realize this is off topic, but /. comments are full of negative American Stereotypes. Anything that helps clarify details from different points of view will always alleviate this hostility.

        • I couldn't point to Afghanistan on a map any more than a German could point to Kansas City

          If you're going to jump to the defense of the notorious lack of geographic awareness in the US, at least make your arguments level. Afghanistan is a country, Kansas City is a might smaller than a country.

          Had you said "I couldn't point to Afghanistan on a map any more than a German could point to Algeria," then you would be making a meaningful and FAIR argument. As it were, you are simply confirming the world's understanding of how important the rest of the world is to the US. Besides, most Americans probably couldn't point out KC on a map.

          The US is HUGE. We're not self centered, we're overloaded with what we have.

          Indeed, you certainly are huge.

          • 4th overall in land mass
          • 3rd overall in population
          • 1st overall in obesity
        • I am American. While most of the Slashdot crowd are fairly intelligent, American or otherwise, most Americans are idiots. Most Americans probably could not find Montana on a political map of the Unites States. They definately could not find Monaco, Andorra, or Luxemborg. We won't bother confusing the issue with places like Slovenia or Slovakia. Worse yet would be places like Chad and the Congo (would that be the Democratic Repubilic of the Congo or Republic of the Congo). Of course even I would have a hard time finding Belarus.

          I am only fluent in English. I have studied a few years of other languages, but no where near fluent.

          • I don't know if it's safe to say Americans are idiots - we're just uneducated. I think many of the problems in the US (I'm American, btw), boil down to the fact that too many people are either uneducated, or poorly educated (i.e. They have diplomas or degrees, but didn't really learn much). I think that's one of the major sources of American arrogance(and all the actions that go along with it), which is the main source of all the anti-american sentiment in the rest of the world.
          • I am only fluent in English. I have studied a few years of other languages, but no where near fluent.


            consider yourself lucky. a native USian I still have quite the muddle trying to think in english. My twin sibling and I were allowed to use twinnish until kindergarten and i still get odd looks from cow-orkers when i lack the english to describe something and manage to not realise I'm going on with words they probably couldn't pronounce (the 'gsth' and 'ruuml' sounds seem to come up a lot.)
          • most Americans are idiots.

            Most people are idiots, IME.

            Most Americans probably could not find Montana on a political map of the Unites States.

            I think I could do that.

            They definately could not find Monaco, Andorra, or Luxemborg.

            Well, they wouldn't be on a map of the United States! Assuming you meant on a European map then you've picked three of the hardest (outside the Balkans) and I'd have a little trouble with that.

            I'm British, BTW; I think you're being a bit hard on Americans.

            TWW

      • It is, by far, the worlds biggest second language. If a company from Hong Kong is doing bussiness with a company in Japan, the bussiness is almost always conducted in English. Why? Well most Japanese people doesn't speak Chinese, and most Chinese people don't speak Japanese. However most of both cultures does speak English as a second language.

        If you want to write something in one language that has the greatest chance of being understood by people form all across teh world, choose English.
    • Faen! Jeg er fra Amerika (og jeg bor i Amerika) men jeg snakke en litt av norsk!

      --Joey
      • Jeg er norsk, bor I Florida, snakker norsk og 6 andre spraak..

        (I'm Norwegian and live in Florida, speaking Norwegian and 6 other languages).

        The initial post in this thread is one of the causes to why USA is in more armed conflicts with other countries than any other country on this planet is. Namely arrogance!
      • That was really impressive, but the neding was wrong. It should have been "men jeg kan snakke litt norsk" Veldig bra uansett

    • Re:court tv dvd box set? (Score:5, Funny)

      by Flakeloaf ( 321975 ) on Thursday December 12, 2002 @07:18PM (#4875985) Homepage
      Yup. Should be on your nearest P2P network by the end of the week. Due to the marvel of 0-day war3z, we'll know what the verdict is before Johansen does.

      • Re:court tv dvd box set? (Score:4, Funny)

        by NanoGator ( 522640 ) on Thursday December 12, 2002 @08:58PM (#4876757) Homepage Journal
        "Yup. Should be on your nearest P2P network by the end of the week. Due to the marvel of 0-day war3z, we'll know what the verdict is before Johansen does. "

        I've got an excerpt from the court reporter:

        "When did this happen?"

        "You're looking at now, sir. Everything that happens now is happening now.
        "What hapepned to then?"
        "We passed then."
        "When?"
        "Just now. We're at now now."
        "Go back to then!"
        "When?"
        "Now!"
        "Now?"
        "Now!"
        "I can't!"
        "Why?"
        "We missed it."
        "When?"
        "Just now."
        "When will then be now?"
        "Soon."

    • No taping in Norwegian courts.

      TV from courts is a nasty American fenomena. And it sucks, because laywers pose more than they work, same for the prosecution.
  • Article [www.vg.no]

    Text:

    OSLO DISTRICT COURT (VG Nett) - There's nothing in the CSS-license stopping license holders from making a DVD player for Linux, says John Hoy, President and COO of the DVD Copy Control Association.

    Tips en venn om denne saken! - Se dagens mest populære tips!

    Få nyhetene om The trial against Jon Johansen først - abonnér på VG Nett Nyhetsbrev!
    Trykk her!
    In the penal trial against DVD-Jon, the case reached John Hoy, President and COO of DVD CCA Thursday morning. DVD CCA and Motion Pictures Association are the offended parts in the trial.

    - I am calling from Oslo District Court, can you please call back us? Was the message on John Hoy's answering machine this morning. And when pohne contact finally was established between Oslo and Phoenix, Arizona, a statment on what Jon Johansen broke into followed.

    Clear demand

    Content Scrambling System (CSS) is made up of an encryption part and a license part. An encryption of DVD movies was, according to Hoy's statement, a clear demand from the film industry for accepting a high-quality format like DVD.

    - All DVD movies would be a perfect copy, Hoy explained via interpreter.

    A central point in the defense case of attorney Halvor Manshaus is that there was no DVD player for Linux in 1999.

    - A company that recieves a CSS license can use the technology in any operating system, Hoy said to prosecutor Inger Marie Sunde.

    - If someone wants to make a player for Linux, there's nothing in the license stopping that, he added later on.

    Interested in timing

    Manshaus was interested in the point of time for DVD CCAs taking over of the responsibility for handing out of CSS-licenses.

    - We handed out licenses from the latter part of September 1999, and became the sole entity or publisher of CSS licenses from mid December 1999, Hoy said.

    Manshaus made no point of the fact that this after DVD-Jon made the decryption tool DeCSS available mid September 1999.

    Another interesting topic Manshaus touched in his examination was wether any clauses on region control existed in the license agreement between DVD CCA and the manufacturers of DVD players.

    Would not comment

    Hoy was read the clause in the definition list describing what is copy protection means in the CSS license agreement. The encryption part is not mentioned specifically there, and Hoy did not want to comment on what DVD CCA recognizes as the legal definition of copy protection and Manshaus finished off his questioning.

    - I can't get himto answer the question, Manshaus said.

    Before Hoy testified by phone, DVD-Jon was asked to go into detail on some of his answers from earlier in the trial. Prosecutor Inger Marie Sunde was mostly occupied by stating dates for the turn of events in autumn 1999, whil the defense was busy leveling out negative statements about the Linux community, that DVD-Jon was quoted with in September 1999.

  • Doesn't it set things off poorly... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by TWX_the_Linux_Zealot ( 227666 ) on Thursday December 12, 2002 @07:03PM (#4875855) Journal
    ...when someone who would be a star witness does the telephone equivalent of not showing up in court? I wouldn't think that this would completely blow the case against the defendant, but I would imagine that many judges wouldn't give the prosecution much slack if they pulled a stunt like that.
    • Yeah, and leaving "I am calling from Oslo District Court, can you please call back us?" on his answering machine?

      The court should have checked him off the prosecutors list of witnesses.
    • Let me get this straight. The recording industry powers are so alarmed over deCSS that not only A) can't they be bothered to actually fly to Norway to attend the trial in person but worse B) they can't even bother to be at the friggin' phone when the court calls.

      Somebody please tell me why they deserve to win this case.

      Lee Kaiwen Taiwan, ROC

      • Somebody please tell me why they deserve to win this case.

        Because they have God-given right to rip off, rob and abuse "consumers" in any other way necessary for them to get more money. At least they seem to think so :-(
    • It is quite common here for a court to interview persons via phone. However, I totally agree that they should make the effort to appear in person. Even though it's only the first district trial, it sends negative vibes... And that is good for Jon, I guess.

      The person (can't remember his name... Facuss or something) releasing some source code under GPL, used in DeCSS was to be examined by telephone from Japan. He was supposed to meet at the Norwegian embassy in Tokyo, but the court was not able to reach him easely. Too bad, because he could give us the inside info on wether the decsstruth.txt document is true or not.

  • Who is he? (Score:5, Informative)

    by irc.goatse.cx troll ( 593289 ) on Thursday December 12, 2002 @07:05PM (#4875869) Journal
    Incase anyone forgot, This is the guy that wrote DeCSS [cmu.edu] (The program that lets people decode dvds so they can be played in free operating systems).

    More info on the trial at Google News [google.com] (Wouldnt it be cool if slashdot automagicly added a google news link to stories to show all relevant links?)
  • Shouldn't there be some sort of repercussions for this absence? they're wasting the legal system's time, as well as Jon's. What crap.

  • DeCSS and such (Score:3, Insightful)

    by TheWhaleShark ( 414271 ) on Thursday December 12, 2002 @07:12PM (#4875929) Journal
    DeCSS is, in theory, an excellent piece of coding. The problem, as is true with technologies along its lines, is that there is quite a bit of room for abuse.

    I think the key here is rather than trying to put this guy away, DVD manufacturers should work with the DeCSS technology to find a happy medium. Obviously, free OS's will need some way to play DVD's, so it makes sense that the technology should expand to include these users. Just putting people on trial in hopes that all these issues will go away is ludicrous. If DVD manufacturers are worried about their products being pirated, imagine the response when the creator of DeCSS gets jailed. This isn't the way to go about it.

    Of course, people who can legitimately play DVD's shouldn't exactly be going around DeCSS'ing every DVD and distributing it on Kazaa or your filesharing program of choice. Abusing the technology is just as big a problem as those trying to shut it down.

    • Re:DeCSS and such (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Xerithane ( 13482 )
      DeCSS is, in theory, an excellent piece of coding. The problem, as is true with technologies along its lines, is that there is quite a bit of room for abuse.

      Not the part Jon wrote. He violated the GPL by taking other peoples "excellent code" that was released GPL. Check the real history on it (In regards to LiViD) and understand that Jon was just trying to be greedy and stupid.

      Granted, it's bunk he's on trial but he's not a saint. He also has posted rather inflammatory things about Linux (and totes FreeBSD) on mailing lists before he tried to harness the Linux communities support.

      • OK, maybe "excellent piece of coding" is a bit much. It's a good idea, but it's been abused like there's no tomorrow. It's got potential, it just needs to be developed.

        I didn't really mean to say that Jon was a saint; but still, like you said, he shouldn't be on trial. There are bigger problems in the world than the abuse of DeCSS.

      • Re:DeCSS and such (Score:4, Insightful)

        by MrHanky ( 141717 ) on Thursday December 12, 2002 @10:45PM (#4877395) Homepage Journal
        Yes, you're right: Jon Johansen never was a saint. No one in their right mind asked him to be one. He was a 15 year old script kiddie when DeCSS was written. He preferred FreeBSD to Linux (maybe without any rational reason), but that's not the case, and it never was. He might have violated the GPL, and then - he might not [openprojects.net] (search for "special licence"). That's also beside the point in this case.

        Whether the defendant is a good guy or a bad guy should be irrelevant in any legal case in a civilized state. It shouldn't matter. It's just not relevant. Bring him to trial for infringement of the GPL instead, or for not being a good poster boy. It's still irrelevant to this case. You're not a good poster boy yourself for free software, and neither am I, Stalin, Hitler, GWB, Saddam Hussein or Mother Theresa. It's hardly illegal.

        Of course, if his motives were to pirate films (which I doubt - why would he post to the LiVid mailing lists then?), he could be judged for contributing to copyright infringement. But he has contributed to developement of free DVD players for Linux, QNX, Windows, *BSD, BeOS, etc., just by releasing the source. Breaking the CSS algorithm was the most important thing about DeCSS. Today it's just an old-fashioned prototype to libdvdcss, used in most free DVD players. And by the way, Jon Johansen has [videolan.org] contributed to such players. (Just search for his last name on that page.)

        The point is: the priciple of DeCSS is important to the developement of free DVD software. Without DeCSS, no libdvdcss: no xine, no MPlayer, no Ogle, no VideoLAN. We need to break the encryption to read DVD's. And we need the right to do so.

        • Re:DeCSS and such (Score:3, Insightful)

          by Xerithane ( 13482 )
          Whether the defendant is a good guy or a bad guy should be irrelevant in any legal case in a civilized state. It shouldn't matter. It's just not relevant. Bring him to trial for infringement of the GPL instead, or for not being a good poster boy. It's still irrelevant to this case. You're not a good poster boy yourself for free software, and neither am I, Stalin, Hitler, GWB, Saddam Hussein or Mother Theresa. It's hardly illegal.

          As I stated in my post, I fully agree with this. The case against him seems defunct anyway, as they are trying him for copyright infringement laws that don't apply to film. I don't expect to see him serve any time for this, assuming the defense adequately describes what he in fact did.

          And by the way, Jon Johansen has [videolan.org] contributed to such players. (Just search for his last name on that page.)
          I didn't say he did, but the core of DeCSS he didn't write (as he claimed he did) -- I refuse to sit back while people tote him as the author of a well known software package that he stole from others (namely, the LiViD author, CSSAuth.c) so I post that he was not a saint.

          I'm glad he did do this though, because he seems to be politically-minded enough to get a rally of support behind him, including the EFF so that he can walk away free.

          The point is: the priciple of DeCSS is important to the developement of free DVD software. Without DeCSS, no libdvdcss: no xine, no MPlayer, no Ogle, no VideoLAN. We need to break the encryption to read DVD's. And we need the right to do so.
          Absolutely, I'm in full agreement. But Jon Johansen was not an intrinsic part of this process. His trial serves as a better asset, instead of his code. I believe it will be one more victory leading to our right.

    • Re:DeCSS and such (Score:5, Interesting)

      by mcc ( 14761 ) <amcclure@purdue.edu> on Thursday December 12, 2002 @08:29PM (#4876545) Homepage
      I think the key here is rather than trying to put this guy away, DVD manufacturers should work with the DeCSS technology to find a happy medium.

      This is what you're missing. The DVD Forum people don't want a "happy medium". They want three things:
      1. They want to recieve license fees for every dvd-capable video player in existence.
      2. They want every dvd-capable video player in existence to work by their rules-- i.e., the ones that allow content producers to completely set what it is possible to do with each disc. I.e. the Sixth Sense 'you cannot access the menu until you watch this trailer for another movie, every time you insert the dvd', or the thing on certain dvds that won't let you pause, or framestep, or whatever.
      3. They want to retain an unchallenged sense of control over their ordered little world.
      Which one of these three is the focus varies, but in general #2 is the biggie here, at least because of a perception that content producers flocked to DVD solely becuase they had that level of control. At some point, it seemed that DVD peoples fear that if content producers lost that control, they'd stop putting so much stuff on dvds, switch to another format, or try to take legal action of some kind.

      #2 is the biggie insofar as linux goes first off becuase "the linux community" will not truly be happy using a closed source video player-- there will always be the person upset he couldn't play dvds on his 10-year-old sparc because the "approved" propeitary player is x86 and PPC only. But much more importantly, this is a problem because open source platforms inherently empower the user. In the end, the user is in control of everything on the OS. This scares the DVD forum. Remember: In order for Apple to get the DVD forum to let them license their dvd player, Apple was forced to write the dvd player in such a way that it refuses to run if MacsBug, the system-level debugger is running, because MacsBug lets you do things like branch to unscheduled subroutines at random moments, and such would have allowed people to take screenshots while the DVD is running! This is a fairly big thing, MacsBug is a versatile tool that LOTS of people run for various reasons, and it is the best/only way to debug many pieces of software. Because there were potential uses of MacsBug that allowed the user to evade the control the DVD forum wants, macsbug users have to switch the thing off and restart anytime they want to watch a DVD.Given this, why on earth do you think the dvd forum would be okay with allowing any DVD player, even a propeitary one, on an OS where everything in the OS including the device drivers can be re-coded by the user?

      Of course, the macsbug thing is a sham: a simple machine-code hack patch thing which is very readily available will allow anyone to alter the dvd player app so that it doesn't notice macsbug. But despite this, Apple still has to leave the "no macsbug" code in the OS 9 version of the DVD player, lest they offend the DVD consortium's illusion of complete control, which they must for some reason maintain to themselves at all costs.

      If the DVD people were interested in a happy medium, i'm almost certain one would have been reached. Remember, the mathematical flaws in CSS remained uncracked for *years* while CSS was just being used for satellite TV; CSS was only knocked over after millions of linux users were left with the alternatives of either someone hacking CSS, or not being able to use products they paid good money for without booting into windows. The "hackers" can sometimes compromise.. but the DVD forum people cared more about control than compromise, and so the LiViD people went around the DVD forum... and we now have DeCSS.

      • Screw the happy medium. (Score:5, Insightful)

        by twitter ( 104583 ) on Friday December 13, 2002 @12:25AM (#4877878) Homepage Journal
        You claim this about the DVD consortium:

        1. They want to recieve license fees for every dvd-capable video player in existence.

        2. They want every dvd-capable video player in existence to work by their rules-- i.e., the ones that allow content producers to completely set what it is possible to do with each disc.

        I agree, but think you miss the point here:

        the linux community" will not truly be happy using a closed source video player-- there will always be the person upset he couldn't play dvds on his 10-year-old sparc because the "approved" propeitary player is x86 and PPC only. But much more importantly, this is a problem because open source platforms inherently empower the user.

        That user has every right to be angry, as do you. The DVD consortium has, with help from a few friends, make it a crime for you to figure out how to use your own equipment or even tell others how to do the same. It's a concept that matters and should not be belittled with absurd examples like trying to make a computer that does not have an IDE interface run a DVD player. Trade secrets should have no force outside of a signed contract, and should never trump free speech. My purchasing a DVD player is not equivalent to me signing a contract. "Open" OS only empower users to the extent that they have source code. If you don't have the power to help your friends do things there will be no free code and no Open OS and you will be at the mercy of those who exploit you to maintain tools you can't use.

  • I don't know who this "nordicfrost" is in person, but his home page is the index page of VG, the leading tabloid paper in Norway. Also, the link to "we have set up ... here in English" points to the same paper. I hereby assume that "nordicfrost" works for VG.

    This auto-slashdotting appears the day after several Norwegian papers accuse the main tabloid competitor of VG for cheating in the national "we-have-the-most-popular-web-site-in-Norway". The competitor had made a popular Norwegian game site give all its web hits to them.

    Some people may think that auto-slashdotting is more of a cheat, but as the Jon Johansen case shows, what "some people" may think is not necessarily what counts. Money rule.

  • Not a hero (Score:4, Interesting)

    by kyrre ( 197103 ) on Thursday December 12, 2002 @07:37PM (#4876127)
    When you read about Jon Johansen you shold realize that he is not a hero. Not only did tok credit for stuff other people did, he broke the GPL. http://people.debian.org/~kju//decsstruth.txt [debian.org]. However one thing he did not do was break norwegian law. The aternoey representing the state is even having trouble figuring out what illegal he has done. People talk about how this is important in regard to similar cases that may accure in the future. I say we found a pretty lousy guy to represent 'us'.

    • Re:Not a hero (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 12, 2002 @08:03PM (#4876331)
      A different viewpoint [harvard.edu]:


      I read through a lot of the list and several things struck me. Overall,
      I see the list as lending a lot of credibility to Johansen's case. I
      don't see it casting doubt as to this.

      Overall, I think the livid-dev mailing list shows Johansen was trying
      to contribute to Linux (and FreeBSD) and shared code with Derek Fawcus
      as a liason to bring this about. He clearly believed _before_ he was
      arrested that his actions were consistent with the DMCA and measured
      them carefully.

    • Well, that link is certainly helpful. Nothing proves your point better than a rant filled with mispelled words and poor grammar, written by someone who won't even sign his name to it.

    • We didn't "find" this guy, but we support his side in the trial because he's innocent. His heroism or weaselness has little to do with it. It's all about the laws, and about the fact that it could have been any one of us.

      It's like fighting a forest fire: you stamp out the embers before they burst into flame. It's the metaphor the "other guys" are using, so why not use it to portray THEM as the fire? Why let them have a legal precedent?

  • Hoy didn't answer the phone... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Snaller ( 147050 ) on Thursday December 12, 2002 @07:39PM (#4876136) Journal
    ... because police confiscated his cell phone - thinking it was a hacking instrument??

  • CSS vs. CSS (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 12, 2002 @07:51PM (#4876224)
    Håkon Wium Lie has written an interesting article [opera.com] on the trial called "CSS vs. CSS".


    Today's two highlights were the sudden evaporation of two witnesses' ability to answer obvious questions. First, Mr John Hoy (62), president of DVD CCA, did not understand his own organization's definition of "Copy Protection Functions". By answering questions on this topic he would undermine the prosecutor's position on "copy protection", so he suddenly turned stale and the defense gave up questioning him.

    The other highlight was when another witness of the prosecutor was asked if "zone-free" DVD players are easily available in the market. The witness claimed not to know. Now, anyone in Norway remotely interested in DVD technology must be unusually dense not to know that most players sold here are "zone-free" -- the players break the DVD CCA rules by allowing people to play the US editions of DVD movies. Why Jon is charged when zone-free DVD players are sold openly in the store next door is a question worth asking.

  • Here in English link broken (Score:4, Funny)

    by m0nkyman ( 7101 ) on Thursday December 12, 2002 @07:54PM (#4876257) Homepage Journal
    Come on folks, virtually everybody in Scandinavia can read and write English, who the heck did that translation? It reads like it was translated from the original Japanese into English by a unilingual Cantonese speaker then translated into Norwegian by a drunken Scotsmen, only to be translated back into English by a committee of patent attorneys.

    • To whomever rated me flamebait, I was going for funny. If you had actually followed the link, you'd agree:

      "In the penal trial against DVD-Jon, the case reached John Hoy, President and COO of DVD CCA Thursday morning. DVD CCA and Motion Pictures Association are the offended parts in the trial.

      - I am calling from Oslo District Court, can you please call back us? Was the message on John Hoy's answering machine this morning. And when pohne contact finally was established between Oslo and Phoenix, Arizona, a statment on what Jon Johansen broke into followed."

      Come on, that's Funny!

      • Well, my boss contacted me and said that we are stopping the English translation. Partly because of the critisism here on Slashdot. FYI: I had roughly 15 minutes to translate this article yesterday, and no spellchecker.

        I was planning to invite Jon a readers-asks-the-questions type of online meeting with Jon, also in English, but that's off now I guess.

        • FYI: I had roughly 15 minutes to translate this article yesterday, and no spellchecker.


          Well in those circumstances, I wouldn't have done it. It looks amateurish. If you had explained at the top of the articles what the circumstances were, people wouldn't have been critical. I've done translation, and I know how difficult it is. Please don't think I was trying to be mean. I admit it was a cheap joke, but it wasn't meant to be hurtful. Humor doesn't translate well, and I apologize if I offended you.



          cheers,
          p.s. Thanks for posting the response instead of just leaving the negative mod. It allowed me to respond.

    • Heh heh, thanks for posting this! Even if some complete moron modded this down, I think it's the funniest thing I've read all day! =)

    • In A.D. 2002
      Trial was beginning
      Judge: What happen?
      Prosecution: Jon set up us the DeCSS.
    • It reads like it was translated from the original Japanese into English by a unilingual Cantonese speaker then translated into Norwegian by a drunken Scotsmen, only to be translated back into English by a committee of patent attorneys.

      It looks like you've discovered the "technology" behind Babelfish.

  • Difference between patent and copyright (Score:4, Insightful)

    by smiff ( 578693 ) on Thursday December 12, 2002 @08:13PM (#4876428)
    Manshaus was interested in the point of time for DVD CCAs taking over of the responsibility for handing out of CSS-licenses.

    What Hoy is insinuating here, is that the DVD CCA has a government granted monopoly on anything CSS related. Judge Kaplan bought it, but it's simply not true. If the DVD CCA wanted a monopoly on decoding DVDs, they should have applied for a patent.

    I don't know what the law is in Finland, but in the United States it is unconstitutional for the government to mix patents and copyrights.

    To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their
    respective Writings and Discoveries

  • Miami Vice (Score:1, Offtopic)

    by rat7307 ( 218353 )
    Don Johnson Trial???

    Well, thats how I read it at first....

    I need to go home....
  • India could argue from the position that they need a platform that everyone can openly develop and therefore are only interested if Microsoft license the source to everyone. Without such openness, Linux may still be their best bet.
  • the fact that Hoy didn't answer the phone when the court called

    Why should he answer the phone? Everyone knows those hackers at 1600.com are just a bunch of movie pirates who spend all their time stealing MPAA property. Good thing we have the DMCA to protect everyone ;-)

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