Legal battles on the Net

MY WORD!

He was a postman's son in a remote Norwegian village who faced the wrath of the powerful Motion Picture Association of America, (MPAA). Two days ago Jon Johansen came out victorious after an Oslo court ruled that he was innocent of DVD piracy.

Why did the MPAA risk a public relations disaster by prosecuting a 17-year-old (at the time) postman's son who was watching downloaded movies in a remote Norwegian village?

The answer is quite simple: it fears that the movie industry's profits could be decimated by the Internet just as the music industry has been.

But the MPAA's worst fears have come true after the protracted legal battle against Johansen that has stretched on for over three years.

Exactly one year ago Johansen won the first round when a Norwegian court ruled that he couldn't be prosecuted for using a software programme that enabled him to watch DVDs on his computer at home.

The MPAA working in tandem with the Norwegian police tried to convince the court that Johansen had violated Norwegian copyright law. This week the authorities lost the appeal before the Oslo Appeals Court.

Johansen (his nickname is DVD Jon) has, inevitably, become something of a celebrity in the last three years. He's still only 20 and he has lived in France for some months. When his prosecution started, crowds of placard-carrying supporters gathered outside the courtroom.

There were even 'Free Jon Johansen' bumper stickers made in his honour "" even though he never actually went to jail. He has, of course, been interviewed by CNN and every other major TV channel in the world about his online escapades.

In the United States too, Johansen has triggered a spate of court battles. Back in 2000 a clutch of movie studios prosecuted a magazine which attempted to publish the details of Johansen's DeCSS programme which he used to unscramble DVDs and watch them on the Net.

The magazine appears to have lost its battle with the MPAA. A handful of websites that attempted to publish DeCSS were also stopped by the courts.

But Johansen hasn't been deterred by his brush with the law. In fact, he has unnerved the music industry by cracking the anti-copying software incorporated in Apple Computers' iTunes which sells low-price legal music. The music industry has been watching iTunes and hoping it will provide the way out from the Internet tangle and the fear of web music.

Johansen, however, takes a different view of iTunes. His argument is that the anti-copying software gives companies control of a product after they have sold it. He cocked a snook at both the MPAA and the courts by publishing the details of how to bypass iTunes's anti-copying software only a few days before the case was due to be heard by the Oslo appeals court.

Can the MPAA rely on the courts to ensure that hackers stop downloading movies? As software gets faster and more sophisticated, it's getting easier and faster to copy movies. But the MPAA has been cracking down on even the slightest infringement.

One student in the United States was suspended from his university after an MPAA complaint that he had downloaded a movie last year. Nobody is quite sure how the MPAA monitored what he was doing. At another level, the MPAA has taken out injunction against movie industry websites which it accused of piracy.

Similarly, the music industry association RIAA is also energetically threatening anyone who downloads music with prosecution. At last count it had reached out of court settlements with 220 people and deals with 1,000 others who agreed not to download music.

Nevertheless, the courts will not have the final say on this issue. It may buy time, but as Johansen's case shows, the music industry is in a tight fix and the movie industry could be in a similar position soon.