2nd AEPOC European Anti-Piracy Symposium:
Media industry in agreement on main approaches to piracy of audiovisual services

	Market, technology and legislation to be aligned
	Legislative priority remains at the top of the agenda

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Amsterdam, October 27^th 2004 - 75 media professionals from 15 countries met on October 21^st in Amsterdam at the 2^nd AEPOC European Anti-Piracy Symposium to discuss the present state of piracy of audiovisual services in Europe. Organised by AEPOC (European Association for the Protection of Encrypted Works and Services) the annual event convened representatives of the audiovisual services industry as well as delegates from industry associations, academia and legislation. The event took place on the occasion of the Dutch presidency of the European Union and was sponsored by Dutch companies DLA SchutGrosheide, Irdeto Access and Philips.

At the Symposium the key perspectives on the piracy problem were proposed by a distinguished speaker's panel: Caroline Loup, E.U. Commission, Jean Berbinau, Member of the French Governmental Advisory Board on Information Technology, Prof. Dr. Nico van Eijk, Institute for Information Law, University of Amsterdam, Job Rietkerk, DLA SchutGrosheide, Tim Kuik, Stichting BREIN, Doug Lowther, Irdeto Access, as well as Mathieu Goudsmits, Philips.

Although analysing the threat of piracy from diverse backgrounds the panellists concluded that piracy must be fought using market related, technological and legal approaches in a simultaneous and complementary fashion.

All speakers agreed that the further development of customer orientated business models for audiovisual services is a key factor in the fight against piracy by making legal offers more attractive than pirating. During the discussion it became clear that in order to be successfully implemented, investments in new offerings, and also in effective conditional access technologies for these offerings, need adequate protection by anti-piracy legislation.

In fact, several contributions underlined the necessity of legislation to be in line with the technological reality. The essential role of the E.U. in this regard was undisputed. The discussion highlighted that the cornerstones of the Conditional Access Directive (98/84/EC) were conceived almost a decade ago, resulting in the complete non-consideration of the detrimental role the Internet is playing for piracy of audiovisual services. In an adhoc intervention AEPOC's President Jean Grenier expressed the concern of the industry about the work schedule of the E.U. Commission with regard to the necessary reform of the Directive. "We urge the Commission to seriously reconsider the priority it assigns to the fight against piracy of audiovisual services. AEPOC is ready to continue the constructive dialogue with the Commission", Grenier said.

An example of the reserved attitude of some legislators across Europe has been seen in the Netherlands, where the legislator, despite the importance of the audiovisual sector for the country, does not give sufficient priority to piracy of audiovisual services. In this regard a number of speakers stressed the important role of stringent legislation and effective enforcement for the build-up of public awareness of the seriousness and the effects of piracy. Public awareness was unanimously regarded as key factor in solving the piracy issue.

Davide Rossi, Secretary General of AEPOC and moderator of the Symposium, concluded: "The committed contributions by speakers from all walks of the industry show that we are far from coming to grips with piracy of audiovisual services. However, there are promising perspectives which can be developed in a common effort of all parties involved. We are pleased that AEPOC could contribute to this endeavour by providing the platform for the interdisciplinary dialogue on this important issue."

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 33 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 (piracy of audiovisual 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 services and IP services.

The AEPOC members are: ADD Europe, Aston, BskyB, Canal+, Canal+ Polska, comvenient, Conax, Digiturk, Eutelsat, Humax, Hutro, 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, Viasat Broadcasting and WELA Electronic.

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