James Delahunty
20 Oct 2005 4:11
DeCSS meets MP3.com? Well that's what the title of the news article would have been if this has happened a few years back. Norwegian infamous hacker Jon Lech Johansen (aka DVD Jon) has flown to the San Francisco to work with maverick tech entrepreneur Michael Robertson. Johansen spoke with Wired about the issues surrounding the move to the United States and how he feels to be on the verge of working with Robertson.
"I have no idea what I'll be doing, but I know it will be reverse engineering, and I'm sure it will be interesting," he said. Johansen became one of the best known names in the tech world after his work with DeCSS, which could decrypt Content Scrambling System on DVDs, allowing you to watch your movies on the Linux operating system. DeCSS angered the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) who pursued Johansen in Norwegian courts but lost.
Robertson has hired Johansen for a new project called Oboe at his company, MP3Tunes.com. MP3Tunes.com allows consumers to purchase MP3 downloads that do not contain any Digital Rights Management (DRM) protection, allowing the consumers to do pretty much whatever they want with the music files. "We have been e-mail acquaintances for a while," Robertson said. "I hired him because we happen to have a major project underway at MP3tunes.com where I thought his skill set would fit perfectly."
You would wonder why Johansen would be in the United States, the land of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), but Johansen pointed out to Wired that it is not no different than being in Norway, due to the country's adoption of new Copyright Laws. "In Norway, you have the same laws (as in the United States) now," he said, "so it makes no difference if I'm doing my work here or there."
Johansen's work has also targeted Apple's iTunes music store. The hacker wrote tools that allow people to purchase songs from iTunes with Linux and save them without Apple's FairPlay DRM. Johansen is not worried about doing similar things in the United States. "I still haven't heard anything from Apple about my hacks," he said with a grin. "There is a tool based on my work reverse-engineering Apple's FairPlay called jhymn that's been hosted on a U.S. server for over a year and nothing has happened." However, he won't be writing any tools in the U.S.
Now that he is in the U.S. though, he said he will have a look at Real's music store and it's Helix DRM. The reason for this is that it uses the same audio format as Apple, but with higher quality. Thus far, Real's music store has been out of his reach as it is not available in Norway. "Basically, if I have no intention of using a service then I won't bother reverse-engineering it," he said. "Now that I can get an American credit card and sign up for their store I might look into it."
It is a possibility that Johansen will be arrested in the United States, according to Jennifer Granick, a cyberlaw attorney at Stanford Law School who often works with the EFF. "Johansen has been out of the reach of the U.S. government and the DOJ," she said. "The fact is that when you've done something that the authorities think is illegal under U.S. law, you'll probably attract attention when you're capable of being arrested." Johansen isn't too worried about the possibility though. "I'm not scared about being arrested now that I'm here. Michael has good lawyers." he said.
Source:
Wired