Johansen was just 15 when he co-authored and allegedly distributed a program called DeCSS. It compromises what is known as the Content Scramble System, or CSS, found in DVDs, designed to prevent unauthorised duplication of a DVD's content. He was prosecuted in response to pressure from Norway's entertainment industry and the Motion Picture Association of America.
Now 20, Johansen - known by some as 'DVD Jon' - was acquitted in January of violating a Norwegian data security law prohibiting the unauthorised compromising of computer security systems. Johansen's had always argued that the reason he wrote DeCSS was to enable him to view his own DVDs on his Linux-based computer.
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