According to the Finnish courts, CSS — the DRM found on standard DVDs — is so weak that it doesn’t even count as a protective measure anymore. As a result, breaking CSS is no longer deemed circumvention of an “effective technological measure” simply because it’s no longer effective.

According to the court, CSS no longer achieves its protection objective. The court relied on two expert witnesses and said that “…since a Norwegian hacker succeeded in circumventing CSS protection used in DVDs in 1999, end-users have been able to get with ease tens of similar circumventing software from the Internet even free of charge. Some operating systems come with this kind of software pre-installed.” Thus, the court concluded that “CSS protection can no longer be held ‘effective’ as defined in law.” All charges were dismissed.

What’s next? The admission that AACS is hopelessly useless and that DRM is a zero-sum game? A boy can dream.

Finnish court rules CSS protection used in DVDs “ineffective” [Turre]