DVD Jon to work for Michael Robertson

GuNgA-DiN writes "Jon Lech Johansen, the 21-year-old Norwegian media hacker nicknamed DVD Jon, is moving to San Diego to work for maverick tech entrepreneur Michael Robertson in what can only be described as the most portentous team-up since Butch met Sundance. "I have no idea what I'll be doing, but I know it will be reverse engineering, and I'm sure it will be interesting," Johansen told Wired News during a Friday stopover in San Francisco. Robertson's website reveals that they are working on a new project and all he said was: "Oboe is the code name for a significant new project we have underway that will launch before the end of the year. It's as momentous as anything I've ever done in my technical career, but I won't say more since I despise vaporware. I know this project will be even better with Jon on board.""

Agreed

[Tibor the Hun]

now he won't be able to reverse engineer anynthing that circumvents the copy protection on Blu-Ray.

Re:a million voices just cried out

[Anonymous Coward]

Who is going to break the DRM on pretty much anything and everything now?

The same people who broke CSS and other DRM schemes and let Jon publish them under his name because he was supposedly in a "safe" country. You don't really think he wrote that stuff do you?

Doesn't really matter anymore

[CheeseTroll]

According to the Wired article...

"In Norway, you have the same laws (as in the United States) now," he says, "so it makes no difference if I'm doing my work here or there."

wired article has more insight

[enjahova]

The Wired article makes a few things much more clear then the original article. It would stop this constant posting of "oh no Jon, don't move to the land of the DMCA" because it tells how Norway has adopted the EU's version of the DMCA. The original article only mentions this in passing at the end.
Also it tells more about Robertson and his previous battles with the content industry.

If Johansen goes on now to help make legitimate programs that will help change the face of content distribution and digital media, then I think this is better then waging guerrila warfare on content producers. I think DVD Jon made a good choice for himself, and probably for the good of digital entertainment.

Robertson = SIPphone, Gizmo

[gerbercj]

Although Michael Robertson is known for things like Lindows, it seems that he's currently more excited about SIPphone and his Gizmo Project. I would guess that he's more interested in connecting that tool to the world to make a Skype killer. It's already got IP Phone, Jabber chat, and links to Google maps. Perhaps they're ready to reverse engineer some chat protocols for integration into a Jabber server? If only my crystal ball were working...

Re:All I know

[mwvdlee]

If you use Compaq's famous method, R.E. is perfectly legal.

-Get one team to reverse engineer and document the functionality of a system (that which can be observed as a user).
-Get another team to only take those documents and build a new system.

This way avoids any copyright issues because nothing is copied except those parts which cannot be protected by copyright (the technical interface).

Only thing to worry about now is patents.

Re:a million voices just cried out

[808140]

That's all well and good, except that Norway isn't part of the EU, and thus is not under any obligations whatsoever to comply with any "EU directives".

Just so you know. Not all of Europe is in the EU. Here's a link: European Member States [eu.int].

Oboe = a better GPS / WiFi / Other radio tech ?

[Dave21212]

Well, the techie in me believes that you always give a project a secret code name that represents some attribute of the nature of the project [wikipedia.org]... (or is that the evil genius in me)?

I looked around for data on the Oboe (ok, I went right to Google then to the Wiki) and found this intriging entry [wikipedia.org]:

Oboe was a British aerial blind bombing targeting system in World War II, based on radio transponder technology. The system went live in December 1942, about the same time H2S radar was introduced.

Oboe used two stations at different and well-separated locations in England to transmit a signal to a Mosquito pathfinder (RAF) bomber carrying a radio transponder. The transponder reflected the signals, which were then received by the two stations. The round-trip time of each signal gave the distance to the bomber. (continued)

... let the wild speculation ensue !

From Robertsons email

[techstar25]

From Robertsons email...

Last Saturday, the Wall Street Journal ran a front page story about Jon relocating to the United States. After that, he got plenty of job offers from some of the biggest names in the technology business. I talked to him over lunch today and asked if he wanted to work at those other companies. "Not really," he replied in a typical minimalist Scandinavian-style reply, forcing me to ask why not. "I want to work on open systems, which is why I came to you."

Sounds good to me.

Has no one noticed what a failure Robertson is?

[Caiwyn]

Why do we keep wasting our time paying attention to Robertson's antics? He's not much of an innovator and he's a terrible businessman. He consistently makes the wrong decisions, both in business and in the legal gambits he inevitably gets himself entangled in.

mp3.com was his one true pioneering moment. The my.mp3.com site allowed you to put a CD in your drive and have mp3 versions of the music you owned instantly unlocked in their library. There was security to ensure that only one person was logged into any account, and that you had a physical copy of the disc you were unlocking. And of course, the RIAA sued them for it. And instead of sticking to his guns, Robertson settled, inviting even more lawsuits and eventually bankrupting the company and forcing him to sell it to Universal, who gutted and subsequently abandoned it.

LindowsOS had to be renamed Linspire -- again because Robertson wouldn't stand his ground after poking "the man" in the eye.

This is a man who consistently rocks the boat to garner attention, then steps down when anyone calls him on it. This is yet another move designed to make public waves without actually accomplishing anything. He's not one who makes sound business and legal decisions. I just hope he doesn't drag DVD-Jon down with him.

Re:DRM is Conspiracy

[cmdr_beeftaco]

you missed the rest of the quote: Then, more seriously, he added, "I'm not scared about being arrested now that I'm here. Michael has good lawyers. San Diego is only a couple of miles from Mexico and I have some family their."

Intersting tibit the largest Norwegian community outside of Norway is in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Obvious what the project is

[MetalliQaZ]

They are reverse engineering iTunes. I'd be willing to bet on it.

Re:Obvious what the project is

[ISayWeOnlyToBePolite]

They are reverse engineering iTunes. I'd be willing to bet on it.

Jon has already done that. http://www.nanocrew.net/?page_id=63 [nanocrew.net]