'DVD Jon' to seek compensation

Jon Lech Johansen, also known as "DVD Jon," plans to seek compensation from the Norwegian government following his acquittal in an appellate court on charges related to alleged copyright violation. Johansen is believed to have played some role in the creation of software used to break copy protection on DVDs. He has defended himself against charges by Norway's white-collar crime unit for four years, and the battle has taken its toll, reports Norway's Aftenposten.

While Johansen is widely reported as being the "lone gunman" behind the creation of the DeCSS descrambler, DVD interest sites maintain that the copy protection code itself was broken by an anonymous German hacker. DeCSS allows users not only to watch DVDs from their PCs--including Linux PCs, which were previously unable to play and descramble DVD content--but also to copy the content and crack other protective measures.

Patrick Gray of ZDNet Australia reported from Sydney.