25 January 2000

Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2000 09:13:48 -0800
From: Martin Minow <minow@pobox.com>
Subject: Re: IP: Author of DeCss Arrested
To: farber@cis.upenn.edu, cypherpunks@cyberpass.net

<http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/d121152.htm>

In reading through the Norwegian version of Aftenposten's article, I read that the investigation followed a complaint from the MPA (motion picture industry association). Because the material was posted on his father's corporate web site, his father was also charged with, (if I translated the article correctly) assisting in illegal publication, punishable by up to three years prison (a very severe sentence under Norwegian law. Note, however, that the English article referenced above says two years.).

Quoted by AftenPosten, proscecutor Marie Sunde stated, in my crude translation:

"We take a serious view of this type of law breaking. This is a difficult problem for producers of intellectual property to guard their economic interests when works can be distributed digitially. Thus, it is important to uphold the criminal laws regarding intellectual property like movies and tv programs."

"At the same time, we must crack down on the hero-worship accompaning such action within the hacker-community. Even if the central person is only 16 years old, it appears the he had been completely clear about what he did."

The criminal complaint was made by Espen Tøndal, the film industry's legal representative in Norway [and, I believe, a declarant in the Santa Clara proceedings].

There is a picture of Jan Johansen at

<http://www.aftenposten.no/objekter/bilder/t27172.jpg>.

The Norwegian article has links to Slashdot, www.opendvd.org, and a Norwegian translation of the DVD CCA (San Jose) complaint, the latter with an extensive set of links to the disputed source code.

The arrest of Jon Johansen is also "front page news" on today's Norwegian editions of CNN <http://cnn.no/> and Computerworld <http://www.computerworld.no/>.

Martin Minow
minow@pobox.com