[IP] "DVD Jon" profiled on front page of Wall Street Journal

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Eric M. Berg" <ericmberg@yahoo.com>
Date: October 16, 2005 12:36:14 AM EDT
To: David Farber <dave@farber.net>
Subject: For IP: "DVD Jon" profiled on front page of Wall Street Journal


This weekend's (Oct. 15-16, 2005) edition of The Wall
Street Journal has a long, prominently placed, and
generally favorable profile of Jon Lech Johansen,
better known to the Internet community as "DVD Jon."

The story, by Steve Secklow, is headlined "Repro Man
--- Meet the 21-year-old Norwegian who defied
Hollywood to help the world copy DVDs -- and beat the
studios in court; Now, he's liberating your iPod."  It
runs to 3000 words and takes up about one-sixth of the
front page of the paper (and half of the back page of
the main news section), including a 4-inch by 5-inch
photo of Johansen, who is wearing a t-shirt saying
"2600" and holding a laptop with the word "HACKER"
displayed on the screen.

Contents of the Wall Street Journal are only available
on-line to paying subscribers, so it isn't possible to
include a link to the story, let alone the full text.
Here are the first few paragraphs:

"JON LECH JOHANSEN dropped out of high school after
just one year. He lives alone most of the time, except
when he stays with his parents in his native Norway.
The 21-year-old doesn't drive, rarely goes to parties
and says he has no close friends, except his father.
He spends about nine hours a day in front of his
computer screen.

Yet this reclusive young Norwegian is the man who may
be the entertainment industry's worst nightmare. Mr.
Johansen, Hollywood executives claim, has done more
than almost anyone in the world to ignite the
explosion of movie piracy on the Internet, costing
them billions of dollars in lost sales. He scoffs at
that.

At the age of 15, Mr. Johansen wrote a computer
program that allowed users to copy DVDs. Then he
posted it on the Internet. A Norwegian private school
awarded him a prize for making an outstanding
contribution to society. The Norwegian government
indicted him."

The story quotes Johansen as saying that he respects
copyrights but is defending consumer digital rights
and opposes industry practices that penalize honest
buyers.  It mentions that the Electronic Frontier
Foundation paid Johansen's initial legal expenses, and
quotes EFF co-found John Gilmore as saying that
Johansen "made a laughing stock of Hollywood... by
showing that a 15-year-old kid could break through
their super security system."

The story doesn't mention the DeCSS software by name,
except in the accompanying sidebar "A History of File
Sharing," nor does it mention Linux.  It refers to
Johansen's blog "So Sue Me," which can be found at
"http://nanocrew.net";.

The story also says that "supporters... printed
T-shirts and ties emblazoned with Mr. Johansen's
software code; it even inspired a haiku."  In reality,
these were done in response to the judicial ruling in
the case Universal City Studios et al. v. Reimerdes
(often referred to as "the 2600 case") that prohibited
the defendants from posting the DeCSS code on the
Internet or linking to sites that contained it.  The
"Gallery of CSS Descramblers" is available on-line at
"http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/DeCSS/Gallery";.





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