Hooray! Norwegian court finds Jon Johansen innocent of all charges. This doesn't really establish precedent in the U.S. (unfortunately), but they did state:

Head judge Irene Sogn, in reading the verdict, said no one could be convicted of breaking into their own property, and that there was no proof that Johansen or others had used the program to access illegal pirate copies of films.

"The court finds that someone who buys a DVD film that has been legally produced has legal access the film. Something else would apply if the film had been an illegal ... pirate copy," the ruling said.

It found that consumers have rights to legally obtained DVD films "even if the films are played in a different way than the makers had foreseen."

Johansen said that was the key part of the ruling.

"As long as you have purchased a DVD legally then you are allowed to decode it with any equipment, and can't be forced to buy any specific equipment," he said.