DeCSS was co-authored by Norwegian Jon Johansen at the age of 15, who claimed to have written the software to allow him to play his own DVDs on his Linux-based PC. The Linux operating system is incompatible with CSS, the Content Scrambling System.
Now 20, Johansen, known by some as 'DVD Jon', was last month cleared by a Norwegian appeals court of all charges relating to the DVD security cracking software.
But DVD companies had also taken action against people and businesses that had published the DeCSS software code on the internet.
DVD-CCA, the organisation that licences CSS for Hollywood movie studios, originally filed the lawsuit in December 1999 and obtained the lower court's injunction in January 2000 against Andrew Bunner, who had published the code on his web site.
The appeals court overruled the lower court injunction in November 2001. It had ruled that the trial judge failed to consider the First Amendment (free speech) rights of Bunner to republish information readily obtainable in the public domain when it issued the injunction. Bunner had republished DeCSS on his web site after reading about it on Slashdot.org and deciding it was newsworthy.
DVD-CCA then appealed to the California Supreme Court to challenge the appeals court's ruling. It contended that republication of DeCSS software constitutes illegal misappropriation of a trade secret. A ruling on the case was pending, until Thursday's announcement that the DVD-CCA was dropping the case.
Cindy Cohn, Legal Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil rights group involved in the action on Bunner's behalf said: "DeCSS has been available on hundreds if not thousands of websites for four years now". She added, "We're pleased that the DVD CCA has finally stopped attempting to deny the obvious: DeCSS is not a secret."
According to CNET News.com a statement issued on behalf of the DVD-CCA explained that the case was no longer necessary.