Jon Johansen, author of the controversial DeCSS program, was cleared of charges in a Norwegian court on Tuesday. Judge Irene Sogn found that Johansen had not violated any of Norway's strict anti-piracy laws in creating the software.

Indeed, DeCSS itself does not commit any act of piracy of its own accord. The software allows the decoding of DVD movies, a function used for a variety of legitimate purposes.

Halvor Manshaus, Johansen's lawyer in the case, told Reuters that the case sets a strong precedent in Norway. "It is saying that when you have bought a film legally, you have access to its content," he said. "It is irrelevant how you get that access. You have bought the movie after all."

The case was brought against the young programmer at the behest of the Motion Picture Association of America, which tried to use encryption to prevent direct access to DVD content. DeCSS removes this encryption, allowing for fair use of the content, including the ability to view DVD movies on non-mainstream operating systems. The latter was Johansen's original motivation for writing DeCSS.

Judge Sogn told prosecutors that they would not be permitted to appeal her decision in the case.

Had Johansen been tried in the United States, the outcome would almost certainly have been different. DeCSS remains illegal under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which prohibits any software that could possibly be used to circumvent digital copy protections for any reason.

2600 Magazine remains enjoined from distributing the software on its web site, or even printing the program's source code for study.