BERLIN -- A court in Oslo on Tuesday cleared a Norwegian teenager of criminal charges for his part in writing a computer code that can break the copy protection code on DVDs. The court found Jon Lech Johansen not guilty of breaking a security system, the charge under Norway's data theft law that prosecutors brought against him last year with encouragement from the MPAA (HR 1/11). Johansen was only 15 when he co-wrote the code, known as DeCSS, which cracked the Copy Control Standard industry standard Content Scramble System encryption software designed to prevent unauthorized duplication of DVDs.

Subscribe to the Hollywood Reporter and see the entertainment industry from its best angle: the inside looking out. Complete access to real-time news and exclusive analysis that goes behind the scenes from film to television, home video to digital media.

   Subscribe now.