It looks like young Norwegian computer whiz Jon Lech Johansen can finally rest easy after years of legal challenges. State prosecutors announced Monday that they won’t appeal a recent court ruling in his favour.
That means the latest legal victory for Johansen, known as DVD-Jon, will be left standing. The now-20-year-old computer expert won’t need to defend himself once again before Norway’s supreme court.
It’s the latest piece of good news for DVD-Jon since an appeals court last month held up a lower court’s acquittal of all charges against him.
Johansen’s defense lawyer said Monday afternoon that his client was still on vacation in France, but expressed relief and satisfaction when contacted by telephone with the news.
“You have to remember that Jon has grown up with these charges hanging over him,” lawyer Halvor Manshaus told news bureau NTB. “It’s been quite a burden.”
Johansen had been charged with copyright infringement after he helped create a computer program called DeCSS. The program, which he publicized on the Internet, allows owners of DVD films to view them on computers instead of DVD players.
Prosecutors, backed by the powerful American entertainment industry, charged the program also opened up the DVDs to pirate copying.
The Norwegian courts, however, disagreed. They contended that DVD-Jon couldn’t be held accountable or punished for others’ use of his program.
It was widely expected that Norway’s white-collar crime unit would appeal the case to the country’s supreme court (Hoeyesterett), but prosecutors clearly changed their minds. There was no immediate reason given as to why they dropped the case.
Story located at Aftenposten Norway News in English
Written by Nina Berglund.
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