DeCSS case fails in Norway. Just as well they’re not in the EU
Register story.

“The entertainment lobby has failed to persuade a Norwegian court to convict a teenager for creating a utility for playing back DVDs on his own computer.

Jon Lech Johansen has been acquitted of all charges in a trial that tested the legality of the DeCSS DVD decryption utility he produced, Norwegian paper Aftenposten reports.

Norwegian prosecutors, acting largely on the behest of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), argued in court that Johansen acted illegally in sharing his DeCSS tool with others and distributing it via the Internet. They claimed the DeCSS utility made it easier to pirate DVDs.

The court rejected these arguments, ruling that Johansen did nothing wrong in bypassing DVD scrambling codes that stopped him using his Linux PC to play back DVDs he’d bought.” NYT version.

Well, that’s one small step for mankind. But the DMCA is being incorporated into the laws of all EU countries as a result of the European Copyright Directive, so if anyone tries the same thing here then they will go to the slammer or face a huge fine. What I’ve never understood is how the Norwegian authorities were conned into bringing the case in the first place.