Jon Lech Johansen

Jon Lech Johansen
Jon Lech in 2005
Born (1983-11-18) November 18, 1983 (age 41)
Harstad, Troms, Norway
Known forDeCSS
Websitenanocr.eu

Jon Lech Johansen (born November 18, 1983, in Harstad, Norway), also known as DVD Jon, is a Norwegian programmer who has worked on reverse engineering data formats. He wrote the DeCSS software, which decodes the Content Scramble System used for DVD licensing enforcement. Johansen is a self-trained software engineer, who quit high school during his first year to spend more time with the DeCSS case. He moved to the United States and worked as a software engineer from October 2005 until November 2006. He then moved to Norway but moved back to the United States in June 2007.[1]

Early life and education

Jon Lech Johansen was born in Harstad to a Norwegian father and a Polish mother.[2] The family later moved to Lardal, where he grew up.[3] At the age of twelve, Johansen began learning programming.[2] He attended Thor Heyerdahl Upper Secondary School in Larvik.[3]

In a post on his blog, he said that in the 1990s he started with a book (Programming the 8086/8088), the web ("Fravia's site was a goldmine") and IRC ("Lurked in a x86 assembly IRC channel and picked up tips from wise wizards.")[4]

DeCSS prosecution

After Johansen released DeCSS, he was taken to court in Norway for computer hacking in 2002.[5] The prosecution was conducted by the Norwegian National Authority for the Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime (Økokrim in Norwegian), after a complaint by the US DVD Copy Control Association (DVD-CCA) and the Motion Picture Association (MPA).[6][7] Johansen has denied writing the decryption code in DeCSS, saying that this part of the project originated from someone in Germany. He only developed the GUI component of the software. His defense was assisted by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.[5][8][9] The trial opened in the Oslo District Court on December 9, 2002, with Johansen pleading not guilty to charges that had a maximum penalty of two years in prison or large fines.[8] The defense argued that no illegal access was obtained to anyone else's information, since Johansen owned the DVDs himself. They also argued that it is legal under Norwegian law to make copies of such data for personal use. The verdict was announced on January 7, 2003, acquitting Johansen of all charges.[7][9][10]

Two further levels of appeals were available to the prosecutors, to the appeals court and then to the Supreme Court. Økokrim filed an appeal on January 20, 2003,[11] and it was reported on February 28 that the Borgarting Court of Appeal had agreed to hear the case. Johansen's second DeCSS trial began in Oslo on December 2, 2003, and resulted in an acquittal on December 22, 2003.[12] Økokrim announced on January 5, 2004, that it would not appeal the case to the Supreme Court.[13][14]

Other projects

In the first decade of the 21st century, Johansen's career has included many other projects.

2001

In 2001, Johansen released OpenJaz, a reverse-engineered set of drivers for Linux, BeOS and Windows 2000 that allow operation of the JazPiper MP3 digital audio player without its proprietary drivers.

2003

In November 2003, Johansen released QTFairUse, an open source program which dumps the raw output of a QuickTime Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) stream to a file, which could bypass the digital rights management (DRM) software used to encrypt content of music from media such as those distributed by the iTunes Music Store, Apple Computer's online music store. Although these resulting raw AAC files were unplayable by most media players at the time of release, they represent the first attempt at circumventing Apple's encryption.

2004

Johansen had by now become a VideoLAN developer, and had reverse engineered FairPlay and written VLC's FairPlay support.[15] It has been available in VideoLAN CVS since January 2004, but the first release to include FairPlay support is VLC 0.7.1 (released March 2, 2004).

2005

On March 18, 2005, Travis Watkins and Cody Brocious, along with Johansen, wrote PyMusique, a Python based program which allows the download of purchased files from the iTunes Music Store without DRM encryption.[16] This was possible because Apple Computer's iTunes software adds the DRM to the music file after the music file is downloaded. On March 22, Apple released a patch for the iTunes Music Store blocking the use of his PyMusique program. The same day, an update to PyMusique was released, circumventing the new patch.

On June 26, 2005, Johansen created a modification of Google's new in-browser video player (which was based on the open source VLC media player) less than 24 hours after its release, to allow the user to play videos that are not hosted on Google's servers.

In late 2005, Håkon Wium Lie, the Norwegian CTO of Opera Software, co-creator of Cascading Style Sheets and long-time supporter of open source, named Johansen a "hero" in a net meeting arranged by one of Norway's biggest newspapers.[17] On September 2, 2005, The Register published news that DVD Jon had defeated encryption in Microsoft's Windows Media Player by reverse engineering a proprietary algorithm that was ostensibly used to protect Windows Media Station NSC files from engineers sniffing for the files' source IP address, port or stream format. Johansen had also made a decoder available.[18][19]

In September 2005, Johansen announced the release of SharpMusique 1.0, an alternative to the default iTunes program. The program allows Linux and Windows users to buy songs from the iTunes music store without copy protection. In 2005, Johansen worked for MP3tunes in San Diego as a software engineer. His first project was a new digital music product, code-named Oboe.[20]

Sony BMG DRM rootkit

Main article: Sony BMG copy protection rootkit scandal

In November 2005, a Slashdot story claimed that Sony-BMGs Extended Copy Protection (XCP) DRM software includes code and comments (such as "copyright (c) Apple Computer, Inc. All Rights Reserved.") illegally copied from an iTunes DRM circumvention program by Johansen.[21][22] A popular claim was that, using the criteria that RIAA uses in its copyright lawsuits, Johansen could sue for billions of dollars in damages.[22]

2006

On January 8, 2006, Johansen revealed his intent to defeat the encryption of next-generation DVD encryption, Advanced Access Content System (AACS).[23] On June 7, 2006, he announced that he had moved to San Francisco and was joining DoubleTwist Ventures.[24] In October 2006, Johansen and DoubleTwist Ventures announced they had reverse engineered Apple Computer's DRM for iTunes, called FairPlay. Rather than allow people to strip the DRM, DoubleTwist would license the ability to apply FairPlay to media companies who wanted their music and videos to play on the iPod, without having to sign a distribution contract with Apple.[25]

2007

In July 2007, Johansen managed to allow the iPhone to work as an iPod with WiFi, without AT&T activation.[26]

2008

On February 2, 2008, Johansen launched doubleTwist, which allows customers to route around DRM in music files and convert files between various formats. The software converts digital music of any bitrate encoded with any popular codec into a format that can be played on any device.[27]

2009

In June, he managed to get an advertisement for his application doubleTwist on the wall of the Bay Area Rapid Transit exit [28] outside the San Francisco Apple Store, just days before the 2009 WWDC event.[29] On June 9, it was reported that the advertisement was removed by BART for allegedly "being too dark" and not allowing enough light into the adjoining transit station.[30] The advertisement was later redesigned and redeployed with a transparent background.[31]

Awards

References

  1. ^ Johansen, Jon Lech (2004). "About". nanocr.eu. Retrieved 2009-06-06.
  2. ^ a b Paulsen, Ivar L. (2012-09-07). "Blant Norges viktigste" [Among Norway's most important]. Harstad Tidende (in Norwegian). Retrieved 2024-06-24.
  3. ^ a b Jensen, Rune (2005-04-13). "Dyster spådom" [Gloomy prediction] (in Norwegian). NRK. Retrieved 2024-06-24.
  4. ^ Jon Lech Johansen’s blog, "Reverse Engineering", 2006-02-09. Retrieved on 2010-06-29.
  5. ^ a b Harrison, Ann (2002-01-10). "DVD hacker Johansen indicted in Norway". The Register. Retrieved 2024-06-23.
  6. ^ Kvistad, Øystein (2000-01-25). "Økokrim sikter påstått DVD-sabotør" [Økokrim targets alleged DVD saboteur]. Digi.no (in Norwegian). Retrieved 2024-06-23.
  7. ^ a b "DVD-Cracking Teen Acquitted". Wired. Associated Press. 2003-01-07. Retrieved 2024-06-23.
  8. ^ a b "Hacker 'DVD Jon' Goes on Trial". Wired. Associated Press. 2002-12-08. Retrieved 2024-06-23.
  9. ^ a b "Teen Acquitted of Hollywood Piracy Charges". PBS. 2003-01-08. Retrieved 2024-06-23.
  10. ^ "Teenager wins DVD court battle". BBC News Online. 2003-01-07. Retrieved 2024-06-23.
  11. ^ Leyden, John (2003-01-21). "Prosecutors appeal DVD Jon innocent verdict". The Register. Retrieved 2024-06-23.
  12. ^ Libbenga, Jan (2004-01-02). "DVD Jon wins again". The Register. Retrieved 2024-06-23.
  13. ^ "Økokrim anker ikke frifinnelsen av DVD-Jon" [Økokrim does not appeal the acquittal of DVD-Jon]. Stavanger Aftenblad (in Norwegian). 2004-01-05. Retrieved 2024-06-23.
  14. ^ "Norwegian Police Won't Appeal Acquittal Of 'DVD Jon'". CRN. Associated Press. 2004-01-05. Retrieved 2024-06-23.
  15. ^ Doctorow, Cory (2004-03-26). "DVD Jon on VLC and Apple's iTunes singles". Boing Boing. Archived from the original on 2007-08-07. Retrieved 2007-08-14.
  16. ^ Smith, Tony (March 18, 2005) – "DVD Jon: buy DRM-less tracks from Apple iTunes"
  17. ^ Eide, Lars Eirik (2005-05-10). "DVD-Jon er en helt". Dagbladet (in Norwegian). Retrieved 2007-08-14.
  18. ^ Johansen, Jon Lech (2005-08-31). "Reversing NSC". nanocr.eu. Retrieved 2007-08-14.
  19. ^ Clarke, Gavin (San Francisco. September 2, 2005) – "DVD Jon hacks Media Player file encryption"
  20. ^ McMillan, Robert (2005-10-21). "DVD Jon now working for Linspire's Michael Robertson". Computerworld. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2007-08-14.
  21. ^ "Wow. Just WOW". Slashdot. 2005-11-17. Retrieved 2007-08-14.
  22. ^ a b "DVD Jon's Code In Sony Rootkit?". Slashdot. 2005-11-17. Retrieved 2007-08-14.
  23. ^ Johansen, Jon Lech (2006-01-08). "DeAACS.com". nanocr.eu. Archived from the original on 2007-08-11. Retrieved 2007-08-14.
  24. ^ Johansen, Jon Lech (2006-06-07). "Moved to San Francisco". nanocr.eu. Retrieved 2007-08-14.
  25. ^ Gannes, Liz (2006-10-02). "DVD Jon Fairplays Apple". GigaOM. Archived from the original on 2006-10-10. Retrieved 2007-08-14.
  26. ^ Johansen, Jon Lech (2007-07-03). "iPhone Independence Day". nanocr.eu. Retrieved 2007-08-14.
  27. ^ Richards, Jonathan (February 20, 2008). "Hacker breaks link between iTunes and the iPod". Times Online. Retrieved December 20, 2011.
  28. ^ DoubleTwist#Controversy
  29. ^ Kincaid, Jason (June 5, 2009). "Apple Gets Pwned, SF Store Is Now Advertising DVD Jon's doubleTwist". TechCrunch. Retrieved December 20, 2011.
  30. ^ "The Cure for iPhone Envy: The story behind the doubleTwist ad". Jon Lech Johansen's blog. June 9, 2009. Retrieved December 20, 2011.
  31. ^ "Slideshow of the new doubleTwist ad". Jon Lech Johansen's blog. June 11, 2009. Retrieved December 20, 2011.
  32. ^ Schell, Bernadette Hlubik (2007). The Internet and society: a reference handbook. United States of America: ABC-CLIO. p. 181. ISBN 978-1-59884-031-5.
  33. ^ "Electronic Frontier Foundation Honors Pioneer Award Winners" (Press release). Electronic Frontier Foundation. 2002-04-11. Archived from the original on 2008-10-25. Retrieved 2010-09-15.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jon Lech Johansen.

Read other articles:

Groß Raden Archaeological Open Air Museum

Museum in Germany Map of the Groß Raden Open air Museum Groß Raden Archaeological Open Air Museumclass=notpageimage| Groß Raden Archaeological Open Air Museum Reconstruction of the site Slavic temple The Groß Raden Archaeological Open Air Museum (German: Archäologische Freilichtmuseum Groß Raden) lies a few kilometres north of the small town of Sternberg and about a kilometre northeast of the village of Groß Raden in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The site is in a depressi...

 

 

WRR (FM)

WRR-FM redirects here. For the radio station in Philippines, see DWRR-FM. Radio station in Texas, United StatesWRRDallas, TexasUnited StatesBroadcast areaDallas–Fort Worth metroplexFrequency101.1 MHz (HD Radio)BrandingClassical 101 WRRProgrammingLanguage(s)EnglishFormatClassical musicOwnershipOwnerCity of DallasOperatorNorth Texas Public Broadcasting, Inc.Sister stationsKERA (FM), KERA-TV, KKXTHistoryFirst air dateOctober 14, 1949; 74 years ago (1949-10-14)[1]Form...

 

 

German occupation of Norway

Nazi Germany occupation of Norway during WWII This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages) This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.Find sources: German occupation of Norway – news · newspapers · books · scholar&#...

Nikos Goumas Stadium

Stadium in Athens, Greece (1930–2003) Nikos Goumas StadiumLocationNea Filadelfeia, Athens, GreeceCoordinates38°2′13.01″N 23°44′28.89″E / 38.0369472°N 23.7413583°E / 38.0369472; 23.7413583OwnerAEKOperatorAEKCapacity24,729Field size105 x 68 mSurfaceGrassScoreboardYesConstructionBroke ground1928Built1930Renovated1998Expanded1979ClosedMay 2003DemolishedMay 2003TenantsAEK (1930–1985, 1987–2003)Greece national football team Nikos Goumas Stadium (Greek: Στ...

 

 

约翰斯顿环礁

此條目可参照英語維基百科相應條目来扩充。 (2021年5月6日)若您熟悉来源语言和主题，请协助参考外语维基百科扩充条目。请勿直接提交机械翻译，也不要翻译不可靠、低品质内容。依版权协议，译文需在编辑摘要注明来源，或于讨论页顶部标记{{Translated page}}标签。 约翰斯顿环礁Kalama Atoll 美國本土外小島嶼 Johnston Atoll 旗幟颂歌：《星條旗》The Star-Spangled Banner約翰斯頓環礁�...

 

 

Palm Springs, Florida

Village in Florida, United StatesPalm Springs, FloridaVillageVillage of Palm SpringsPalm Springs Village HallMotto: Garden Spot of Palm Beach CountyLocation of Palm Springs, FloridaPalm Springs, FloridaCoordinates: 26°38′09″N 080°05′46″W / 26.63583°N 80.09611°W / 26.63583; -80.09611Country United StatesState FloridaCounty Palm BeachIncorporatedMay 31, 1957 (1957-05-31)Government • TypeCouncil-Manager • ...

Sekolah Jepang Jakarta

Jakarta Japanese School Jakarta Japanese School (JJS; ジャカルタ日本人学校 Jakaruta Nihonjin Gakkō; bahasa Indonesia: Sekolah Jepang Jakarta) adalah sekolah internasional Jepang di Pondok Aren, Tangerang Selatan, Indonesia di Jakarta Raya.[1] Lihat pula Imigrasi orang Jepang ke Indonesia Referensi ^ Home page Diarsipkan 2017-07-25 di Wayback Machine.. Jakarta Japanese School. Retrieved on 15 January 2015. JL.Titihan Raya,Bintaro Jaya Sektor 9 Parigi-Pondok Aren,Tangeran...

 

 

Stasiun Hirosaki

Stasiun Hirosaki弘前駅Stasiun besarStasiun Hirosaki pada Agustus 2011Lokasi1-1 Omotemachi, Hirosaki-shi, Aomori-ken 036-8096JepangKoordinat40°35′56.22″N 140°29′6.12″E / 40.5989500°N 140.4850333°E / 40.5989500; 140.4850333Koordinat: 40°35′56.22″N 140°29′6.12″E / 40.5989500°N 140.4850333°E / 40.5989500; 140.4850333Operator JR East Kōnan Railway JR Freight Jalur ■ Jalur Utama Ōu ■ Jalur Kōnan Letak447.1 km dari Fuk...

 

 

普通高等学校招生全国统一考试

  关于“高考”的其他用法，请见「高考」。 此條目需要补充更多来源。 (2022年6月7日)请协助補充多方面可靠来源以改善这篇条目，无法查证的内容可能會因為异议提出而被移除。致使用者：请搜索一下条目的标题（来源搜索：普通高等学校招生全国统一考试 — 网页、新闻、书籍、学术、图像），以检查网络上是否存在该主题的更多可靠来源（判定指引）。 2022�...

Sergei Roldugin

Sergei RolduginLahirSergei Pavlovich Roldugin28 September 1951 (umur 72)Sakhalin, Republik Sosialis Federatif Soviet Rusia, Uni SovietTempat tinggalSt. Petersburg, RusiaPekerjaanPemain celloDikenal atassahabat Vladimir Putin, Panama PapersSuami/istriIrina Nikitina, Elena Mirtova Sergei Pavlovich Roldugin (bahasa Rusia: Сергей Павлович Ролдугин, lahir 28 September 1951 Sakhalin[1][2]) adalah pemain cello dan pebisnis Rusia yang menetap di St. Petersb...

 

 

Flag

Piece of fabric with a distinctive design and colours For the flags belonging to nations, see National flag. For other uses, see Flag (disambiguation). United Nations members' national flags Setting up a flag could also possess the meaning of conquering something. Jaan Künnap with the flag of Estonia at the top of Lenin Peak (7,134 m [23,406 feet]) in 1989. A flag is a piece of fabric (most often rectangular) with a distinctive design and colours. It is used as a symbol, a signalling de...

 

 

Hot Country Songs

Weekly chart published by Billboard Florida Georgia Line holds the records for the most cumulative weeks atop the Hot Country Songs chart (106) and the most weeks atop the chart for a single song (50 for Meant to Be, a collaboration with pop singer Bebe Rexha).[1] Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data from Nielsen BDS along...

Christianity in Tajikistan

Christianity by country Africa Algeria Angola Benin Botswana Burkina Faso Burundi Cameroon Cape Verde Central African Republic Chad Comoros Democratic Republic of the Congo Republic of the Congo Djibouti Egypt Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Eswatini Ethiopia Gabon Gambia Ghana Guinea Guinea-Bissau Ivory Coast Kenya Lesotho Liberia Libya Madagascar Malawi Mali Mauritania Mauritius Morocco Mozambique Namibia Niger Nigeria Rwanda São Tomé and Príncipe Senegal Seychelles Sierra Leone Somalia South...

 

 

Kindline

Yiddish childrens magazine KindlineEditor-in-chiefMendel PanethStaff writersFishel ShachterJoseph KwadratDovid WeberStaff IllustratorsBatsheva HavlinAvram ZmoraFrequencyWeeklyFounderMendel PanethFounded2014First issueDecember 16, 2014CompanyKindline Enterprises, Inc.CountryUSBased inBrooklyn NYLanguageYiddish Kindline (Yiddish: קינדליין, /kɪndlaɪŋ/ ⓘ is a New York City-based Yiddish-language weekly magazine founded in late 2014 by then editor-in-chief Mendel Paneth, with the ...

 

 

Carnifex (band)

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.Find sources: Carnifex band – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (January 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this message) American deathcore band CarnifexCarnifex performing at With Full Force 2014Background informationOriginSan Diego County, California, U.S....

Polybutylene terephthalate

Polybutylene terephthalate Names IUPAC name Poly(oxy-1,4-butanediyloxycarbonyl-1,4-phenylenecarbonyl) Identifiers CAS Number 24968-12-5 Y ChemSpider none Properties[1] Chemical formula (C12H12O4)n Melting point 223 °C (433 °F; 496 K) Except where otherwise noted, data are given for materials in their standard state (at 25 °C [77 °F], 100 kPa). N verify (what is YN ?) Infobox references Chemical compound Polybutylene ter...

 

 

Double act

Pair of comedians whose act is based on their uneven relationship This article is about comedy duos. For the novel, see Double Act (novel). Laurel and Hardy A double act (also known as a comedy duo) is a form of comedy originating in the British music hall tradition,[1] and American vaudeville, in which two comedians perform together as a single act, often highlighting differences in their characters' personalities. Pairings are typically long-term, in some cases for the artists' enti...

 

 

Reggie Abercrombie

American baseball player (born 1980) Baseball player Reggie AbercrombieAbercrombie batting for the Round Rock Express, Triple-A affiliates of the Houston Astros, in 2008.OutfielderBorn: (1980-07-15) July 15, 1980 (age 44)Columbus, Georgia, U.S.Batted: RightThrew: RightMLB debutApril 4, 2006, for the Florida MarlinsLast appearanceSeptember 28, 2008, for the Houston AstrosMLB statisticsBatting average.223Home runs9Runs batted in34 Teams Florida Marlins (2006�...

TBS (jaringan TV)

TBSDiluncurkanDecember 17, 1976PemilikTurner Broadcasting System(Time Warner)SloganveryfunnyNegaraAmerika SerikatWilayah siarUnited StatesUnited KingdomKantor pusatAtlanta, GeorgiaNama sebelumnyaSuperStation WTBS (1979–1987) TBS Superstation (1987–1991 and 1996–2004) TBS (1991–1996)Saluran seindukTNTCNNCartoon NetworkHBOHLNTCMtruTVThe CWWPCH-TVSitus webwww.tbs.com TBS (bergaya dengan tbs sejak 2004) adalah saluran televisi kabel Amerika Serikat. Program yang disiarkan TBS kebanyakan a...

 

 

35-мм артиллерийская установка Oerlikon Millennium

35-мм артиллерийская установка «Эрликон Миллениум» Тип Зенитный автомат Страна  Швейцария История службы Годы эксплуатации 2003 На вооружении  Дания Венесуэла Украина История производства Конструктор Oerlikon Contraves AG Производитель Rheinmetall Air Defence, Oerlikon Contraves Lockheed Martin ...