Press Backgrounder
AEPOC - At a Glance

Reliable and respected conditional access systems are key to the development of electronic media such as Pay-TV and digital (IP based) services. AEPOC is short for (Association Européenne pour la Protection des Œuvres et Services Cryptés / European Association for the Protection of Encrypted Works and Services). The industry association combats pirating of encrypted works and services since 1995. Presently, AEPOC's membership comprises 31 leading players in the European media industry: TV channels, conditional access providers, providers of transmission infrastructures and manufacturers of related hardware.

Every year an estimated 1 billion € is spent inside the European Union for smart-cards and decoding equipment used for piracy of audiovisual services. Piracy of this magnitude has broad economic, cultural and fiscal impacts:

• Copyright Copyright holders for programming content as well as broadcasters with exclusive transmitting rights are directly impacted as are the providers of conditional access systems with regards to the copyright of the encoding software.
• Trading Distributors and installers of receiving equipment lose income
• Taxes Illegal players pay no taxes and no taxes is being paid on the growth in the media industry prevented by piracy
• Employment Business lost by legitimate businesses to illegal operatitions leads to job redundancies or foregone creation of new jobs
• Innovation Piracy stifles innovation by constricting the implementation of new services and by reducing the achievable return on investments in content, transmission systems and hardware
• Legal Audience An unfair financial burden is imposed upon legal viewers for they have to pay higher subscription fees

AEPOC's activities against piracy include:

• Monitoring of the situation
• Analysis of European legislation
• Identification of weaknesses in existing regulations
• Promoting new legislation to cope with the changes in the market
• Working with public bodies and member companies to fight piracy
• Organisation of events to raise public awareness
• Research to develop technical counter-measures

In view of the insufficient reach and applicability of existing legislation, AEPOC works inside the European Union for:

• Legal protection specifically governing the use of conditional-access devices for reasons that are not just for the protection of direct remuneration
• The punishment of the personal use and possession of illegal decoding devices
• Harmonisation of laws at the European level and the introduction of minimum thresholds for sanctions
• Creation of a specific working group at Europol to bring together technical, legal and investigative expertise

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