DeCSS Creator Faces Appeal

The Norwegian government submitted an appeal Tuesday on the acquittal by Oslo City Court of Jon Lech Johansen, also known as "DVD Jon," on charges regarding his development and distribution of DeCSS, a program that can be used to break the digital copy-protection mechanism of DVDs.

Johansen's attorney Halvor Manshaus issued a joint statement with the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation Tuesday saying that the appeal was not unexpected.

Manshaus said that the appeals court, Borgarting lagmannsrett, will screen the case and may decide not to grant the appeal.

Even if the appeals court decides to hear the case, Manshaus said, he is confident that the appeal will not succeed because the same evidence and arguments will be put before the court as were put forward in Oslo City Court.

Norway does not have an equivalent of the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and therefore Johansen did not break the law, the EFF said in the joint statement.

Under the United States' 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act not only is it illegal to circumvent access control preventions but it is also illegal to distribute the code to others.