Davide Rossi has been appointed new secretary general of AEPOC, the European anti-piracy association. An Italian lawyer, Rossi, 34, was already a Board member of the association and is part of the Intellectual Property Committee within the Italian Prime Minister’s Cabinet.
During its General Assembly held yesterday in Rome, AEPOC welcomed the progress made in the implementation and enforcement of the 1998 European Conditional access services Directive in Italy and approved the association’s action plan for the coming months.
AEPOC (Association Europ¿enne pour la Protection des Oeuvres et Services Crypt¿s), which brings together major European broadcasters, equipment manufacturers, conditional access and infrastructure providers, held its General Assembly today in Rome to discuss progress made in the adoption of adequate legislative measures, the enforcement of existing laws and cooperation with private and public enforcement bodies to fight against piracy in Europe.
In Italy, Stream, Tele+ and Rai, all members of AEPOC, are actively collaborating with judges and public prosecutors, the police (Polizia delle Telecommunicazioni, Guardia di Finanza and Carabinieri) to combat TV piracy. Italian officials were invited to join AEPOC’s meeting in Rome to discuss the way they cooperate with local digital operators to fight against pirates.
Since the beginning of the year, some 90 operations have taken place all over Italy, resulting in hundreds of persons charged and the equipment of several illegal laboratories seized.
The Italian Law 248/2000 prohibits the manufacture, importation, sale, rental but also personal possession of pirate equipment (i.e. devices granting access to encrypted services without due payment). Such activities and possession are considered as criminal offences, with a penalty up to LIT 50 million and up to three years’ imprisonment.
In addition to the active enforcement of the Italian anti-piracy law, which is based on the November 1998 European directive, the two pay-TV operators are also putting in place a series of technical counter-measures which neutralize pirate smart cards and are scheduled at strategic moments of their channels’ line-up.
Recently, Tele+ for example switched off a large number of pirate cards right before broadcasting the live soccer game Juventus-Roma, creating enormous frustration amongst illegal viewers.
“Our members are in front of a new challenge in order to grant to all the pay-TV operators a solid technological platform and at the same time are fighting to implement appropriate legal and operational countermeasures against piracy.
“Furthermore we need to accurately identify the real weight of the phenomenon in order to avoid any market distortion”, said Jean Grenier, former Director General of Eutelsat and President of AEPOC.
