The Norvegian episode of the great DeCSS witch hunt ended, for now, on an acquital on all counts. Of course, everyone already kowns.

I hope this is sound law (considering I know nothing about Norwegian law and the state of implementation of the European DMCA there) and I wonder what repercussions this will have. After all, this was not a particularly good test case: there was no smoking gun, stacks of pirated DVDs or other pirate paraphenalia on evidence. Just a coder who wanted to read DVDs without using an licensed decoder.

This said, I can’t help but wonder if the deflation of the dotcom bubble had the effect of cooling off the heads of the judiciary in those related matters.

Now that the hype is somewhat less blinding, that the image of any tech endeavor as a speeding unstoppable express freight train in front of which everything must yield is gone for good, maybe well see more sensible decisions.

[via everyone and their pet shrimp]