War on Economic/Copyright Terrorism:
Jon Johansen, who published DeCSS, has been
charged with
computer crime for bypassing DVD access-control mechanisms.
The law under which he is charged has been used to prosecute crackers
breaking into banks; there is no precedent applying it to copy-control
mechanisms, but Hollywood and the US Government are pushing hard for one.
(And you don't want to get in the way of the US Government; just ask the
Afghans.)
If convicted, Johansen faces 2 years in prison. (Though presumably he
should be thankful he is not going to be extradited to the US; Norwegian
prisons are probably more humane than US federal prisons.)
The
usual pirasymps are lobbying for the charges to be dropped.