Don't jail hacker, say prosecutors

The Norwegian teenager who cracked the movie industry's DVD protection system should suffer the loss of his computer as punishment and pay $1,400 (£875) court costs, prosecutors have requested.

But Jon Lech Johansen, 19, should not be jailed, prosecutors said. Instead, they have asked for a 90-day suspended sentence to be handed down.

A verdict is expected within a few weeks, according to Associated Press reports.

Johansen pleaded not guilty to violating Norwegian computer security laws, an offence which carries a maximum sentence of two years in prison.

He wrote software called DeCSS, which he said was necessary to watch movies he already owned on his Linux-based computer, for which DVD software had not yet been written.

But Johansen put the software online, and thousands downloaded it to bypass copyright protection codes on DVDs.

Prosecutors said Johansen's intent was to crack the codes for illegal gain and to spread the information among internet hackers.

Johansen's attorney, Halvor Manshaus, claimed Johansen had to copy DVD movies to test the DeCSS software.

Copying a few bits of DVD data was no different from copying parts of an encyclopedia for studying later, Manshaus said.