AEPOC Board of Directors meeting hosted by EBU in Geneva

European and Canadian Anti-Piracy Associations meet in Geneva

	Transcontinental consultations between AEPOC and Canadian CASST
	Co-operation with Council of Europe for training law-enforcement staff discussed
	Infineon admitted as new AEPOC member
	Susbauer PR appointed as new European press contact for AEPOC
	EBU Secretary General Jean Réveillon's speech

Geneva, April 8^th 2005 - AEPOC, the European Association for the Protection of Encrypted Works and Services, intensifies transcontinental consultations against piracy of audio-visual services: At the quarterly Board of Directors meeting of AEPOC held in Geneva, the CASST association (Coalition Against Satellite Signal Theft), based in Ottawa, Canada, provided a comprehensive presentation about the situation in North America. Both associations exchanged and discussed their experiences in their legislative and market initiatives to combat piracy in Europe and North America. The meeting was hosted by the European Broadcasting Union at its headquarters in Geneva, where AEPOC was founded eight years ago. AEPOC and EBU share a common objective with regard to their fight against piracy, and their bond is strengthened by the fact that they also have in common a number of eminent members.

The AEPOC Board of Directors also discussed possibilities to support legal prosecution of piracy in Member States of the Council of Europe that have already ratified the European Convention for combating illicit access to conditional access services. The Council of Europe Media Division is considering training sessions for law-enforcement staff to make administrative and police investigations and criminal prosecution more effective.

During the Geneva meeting, the admission to membership of semiconductor and system solutions provider Infineon Technologies was approved, bringing the association's membership to a total of 35. The Board of Directors further decided to contract the PR agency Susbauer Public Relations for AEPOC's communication tasks with immediate effectiveness.

Jean Grenier, President of AEPOC, says: “AEPOC thanks EBU Secretary General Mr. Jean Réveillon for the hospitality to have invited AEPOC to Switzerland. Our objective to combat piracy started eight years ago here in Geneva with the support of EBU. Today with a total of currently 35 industry leading companies, AEPOC has become a very successful body against the illicit access to audio-visual services in Europe.”

The next AEPOC meeting will be held in Germany in June 2005.

AEPOC (www.aepoc.org) is the “Association Européenne pour la Protection des Œuvres et Services Cryptés” or the “European Association for the Protection of Encrypted Works and Services”. AEPOC started its activities in 1995. Its current membership consists of 35 leading digital television and telecommunication companies including TV channels, conditional access providers, providers of transmission infrastructures and manufacturers of related hardware. AEPOC's goal is to eliminate the pirating of encrypted works and services and to encourage the development of the appropriate legal, operational and technological frameworks to increase the security and safeguarding of conditional access systems for Pay-TV, TV-based and IP services.

The AEPOC members are: ADD Europe, AL MAJD, Aston, Atmel, BskyB, Canal+, Canal+ Polska, comvenient, Conax, Digiturk, Eutelsat, Humax, Hutro, Infineon Technologies, Irdeto Access, Motorola, Nagravision, NDS, Nokia, NTV-Plus, Opentech, Pace, Philips, Premiere, Sagem, SCM Microsystems, Showtime Arabia, Sky Italia, Sogecable, Thomson, TPS, TVCabo, UGC Europe, Viaccess - France Telecom, and WELA Electronic.

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