Finnish CSS cases

Mikko Välimäki, last updated 29.1.2010

Background: Mikko Rauhala, a well-known hacker and activist, decided to criticize the Finnish copyright law emendment that implemented EU Copyright Directive's anti-circumvention regulation in the beginning of 2006. He opened a discussion forum titled "Organized discussion" and asked others to post information on how to circumvent CSS, the technological protection measure that restricts the viewing of DVDs. Within a week, more than ten individuals participated and posted their own source code examples, code copied from elsewhere, and links to circumvention information and codes on the Internet. Rauhala and his fellow activists then turned to a police station and demanded an investigation whether they had breached the new law. They expected the police would either not investigate or the prosecutor would not sue. To their surprise, an active prosecutor decided to test the ground and sue. The Finnish CSS cases followed...

Rauhala's account of the campaign is here. [In Finnish]

I have served as the defendants' counsel in the first CSS case and consulted the attorney who defends the third defendant in the second CSS case.

First case: prosecutor against Mikko Rauhala who opened the forum and another defendant who posted a Haskell-code

• State prosecutor's decision on the right to sue [FIN]
  Prosecutor's charges [FIN]
  District court judgment, 27.5.2007 [FIN / ENG]
• Copyright Council opinion 29.8.2007 [FIN / ENG]
• Prosecutor's Appeal [FIN]
      Opinion of Lindsay Holman [ENG]
      Opinion of Mihaly Ficsor [ENG]
  Defendants' response [FIN]
      Opinion of Kai Puolamäki [FIN]
  Appeals Court judgment 22.5.2008 [FIN]
  
• Defendants' Supreme Court Appeal [FIN] (leave to appeal denied 11.12.2008)
      Opinion of Tapani Tarvainen [FIN]
      Opinion of Arto Teräs [FIN]
  
• Defendants' individual appeals to the European Court of Human Rights

Second case: prosecutor against third defendant who posted C code and asked others to post more

• Prosecutor's charges [FIN]
  District court judgment, 21.10.2008 [FIN]
• Defendant's appeal [FIN]
      Opinion of Kai Puolamäki [FIN]
  Appeals Court hearing is set for February 2010 and a judgment is expected in March 2010

Commentary

Mikko Välimäki: Legal limits of technological protection measures in Europe -- open questions based on the ongoing Finnish CSS cases, SCRIPTed 3/2009.

Mikko Välimäki: Keep on hacking: a Finnish court says technological measures are no longer "effective" when circumventing applications are widely available on the Internet SCRIPTed 2/2007.

Ilkka Vuorenmaa: Teknisten suojakeinojen asema hahmottuu -- Oikeudelliseen statukseen lisävaloa oikeuskäytännöstä IPR Info 5/2008 [In Finnish]