Thanks Viktor for this news. A Norwegian teenager who helped crack a code meant to protect the content of DVDs won full backing from an Oslo court on Tuesday. The court acquitted him on all charges, a ruling that comes as a crushing blow to public prosecutors and entertainment giants.
The case had been widely described as a "David vs Goliath" battle, pitting 16-year-old Jon Lech Johansen from a small town south of Oslo against huge corporations and organizations including the Motion Picture Association of America.
"David" clearly won.
Norwegian prosecutors, acting largely on a complaint from the powerful American entertainment industry, had maintained that Johansen acted illegally when he shared his DVD decryption code with others by putting it out on the Internet.
Prosecutors, who indicted Johansen after a raid on his bedroom three years ago, also had claimed the decryption code could enable pirate copying of DVDs. They seemed mostly interested in achieving victory in principle, rather than tough punishment for Johansen, and sought a sentence equivalent to three months on probation.