OSLO (Reuters) - A Norwegian teenager who created a computer program to copy Hollywood movies was cleared of piracy charges on Tuesday in a "David and Goliath" trial pitting him against the industry's biggest studios.

The Oslo district court said Jon Johansen, dubbed "DVD Jon," had not broken any laws when he helped unlock a code and distribute a program enabling unauthorized copying of DVD movies.

"I'm happy but not surprised," a beaming Johansen told reporters after his acquittal. "This is about consumers' rights, and all over the world copyright holders are trying to limit consumers' rights. We cannot have that."

Prosecutors, who had told judges to ignore the widespread portrayal of the trial as "a fight of David against Goliath," had urged a 90-day suspended jail term.

Johansen, 19, developed the program, which was distributed on the Internet, when he was 15.

The teenager has since become a symbol for hackers worldwide who say making software such as Johansen's -- called DeCSS -- is an act of intellectual freedom rather than theft.

"Johansen is found not guilty," judge Irene Sogn, who reached the unanimous verdict with two technical experts, told the court, adding that police could not confiscate his equipment. There was no jury in the six-day trial in December.

The prosecution was brought after a complaint by the Motion Picture Association (MPA), representing major Hollywood studios such as Walt Disney Company, Universal Studios and Warner Bros. Johansen said he had tested DeCSS on his favorite movies "Matrix" and "The Fifth Element" -- both of which he owns on DVD -- but only managed to transfer bits of them to his hard drive.

DeCSS is one of many similar programs available on the Internet.

The judge said Johansen could view DVDs he had legally bought however he wanted. Prosecutors had failed to give evidence that Johansen's program had been used by others to watch pirate copies, she added. The ruling can be appealed within two weeks.

"This is a very solid ruling," Johansen's lawyer Halvor Manshaus told Reuters. "It is saying that when you have bought a film legally, you have access to its content. It is irrelevant how you get that access. You have bought the movie after all."

Hollywood studios, which encode DVD movies to prevent people from copying them, had said unauthorized copying was copyright theft and undermined a market for DVDs and videos worth $20 billion a year in North America alone.

Johansen hinted he would continue to challenge Hollywood.

"DVD players which skip commercials still don't exist," said Johansen, who is making about 35,000 crowns ($5,039) a month as a computer programmer. "This ruling means that anyone can produce equipment which allows you to skip commercials."