Jon Johansen is Innocent!

Computers & Internet Forum

Well I think it's a pretty big legal precedent that Jon johansen, author of "DeCSS" has been tried and found unanimously innocent by a jury of peers who found insufficient evidence linking Johansen to intentions of aiding and abetting the unlawful copying and distribution of DVD Video content.

For those of you who have been living under a rock the last few years, DeCSS is a computer program hacked out by Johnasen that is able to descramble the Content Scrambling System (CSS) technology used to encrypt the data on DVD Video discs which prevents them from being copied. The software was written in order to allow computers running the Linux operating system to have programs that can read the audio & video data from the disc and play them back on the screen. It just so happens that this capability also presents an opportunity to re-write that data in any of a dozen other formats that can be illegally distributed without worrying about decryption.

Johansen was accused of intending to break the law. The fact is that he just wanted to watch movies on his computer that wasn't running some off-the-shelf, commercialized operating system for which no DVVD playback support had yet been developed. Thanks to his efforts, there are now plenty of DVD playback options for Linux operating systems (as well as other platforms).

My friend, John Paczkowski wrote about this in his periodical, Good Morning Silicon Valley today.

As an inventor of a product, service or concept,

One with good intentions must always consider if what they are about to unleash can be used illegally or to cause harm.

Then one must decide if it's worth pursuing.

If he was at all intelligent, he would have seen the journey down this road long before he decided to take it.

If what he did was for the reasons you specify, it's good that he got off - however, he can't be surprised by the result of his inventiveness.

The kid was 15-16 y/old when this all went down. I don't know about you, but when I was 16 I didn't have anywhere near the capacity for that kind of rationality..

Here's a pretty decent interview with the kid vs LinuxWorld if ya care to check it out..

A testament to bad parenting.

The kid's dad/mom shoulda played a bigger role in his life.

That's what parents are for - to help you out in those scenarios where your brain is under developed.

Yeh, funny! the kid's parents supported him through the whole thing. his dad ran the ISP server on which his webpage was hosted where he distributed the program from. I have no idea what parenting is like for Euro-types though - i'd imagine they face the same problems we do here, but cultural differences may make certain problems plumb invisible to them.

So is it reasonable for the court system to consider his father as an accomplice to the crime?

Homie prolly learned a lesson or two.

Prior to an act being determined to be a crime in a court of law, accomplices can be named and tried. I was referring to the time prior to the close of the case, of course.

Point being, should a child's parents be held responsible for their own actions particularly when their aiding and abetting their children.

I see.. should they be held accountable? I dunno, really - it's a foreign land and "international law" (whatever that is) comes in to play. I don't really know how all that works.. guess I should find out before I inadvertently break some law in Zimbabwe (or whereever) from afar and find myself an international defendant.