#37: I Mean, They Are His DVDs
Technology and law have always made for uneasy bedfellows. Technology is always surging ahead, coming up with incredible new ways to accomplish great things, as well as incredible new ways to commit crimes. And the law is always playing catchup, trying to respond to changing technology but always about half a decade behind the times.
That leads to cases like Jon Lech Johansen, who managed to find a way to decrypt DVDs, which of course infuriated the corporations who created and sold DVDs. This left Johansen trying to defend himself using laws that weren’t prepared to deal with this kind of situation. Personally, I’m glad he was finally acquitted. Because he’s right; they were his DVDs he was decrypting.