The DeCSS case just won't go away. Apparently the MPAA's victory against 2600 wasn't enough. The authorities are now threatening one of the authors of the DeCSS program with prison time.

What strange times we live in where writing a computer program and/or figuring out how to decrypt something is enough to get you charged with a crime and possibly thrown into prison. On Thursday, authorities in Norway charged Jon Johansen with violating a computer security system for his part in the writing and dissemination of DeCSS, a program that helps defeat the effectiveness of the Content Scrambling System (CSS), used for imposing playback restrictions on DVDs. Our publication of this same code is what led to the MPAA lawsuit against us - a case which is now heading for the Supreme Court.

Johansen testified at our trial and also spoke of his experiences at our H2K conference in July 2000. Audio of the Johansen and DeCSS panels are available at http://www.h2k.net/panels.html.

Johansen's home was raided in 2000 and he and his father were both taken into custody. It was widely thought that reason had prevailed and that there would be no more action taken against them. Thursday's developments proved otherwise. If convicted, Johansen will face six months in prison.