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TS News - New European Organization To Fight TV Hackers

TELE-satellit News, 28 January 1997

New European Organization To Fight TV Hackers
  GENEVA, Switzerland, 97/01/24 (AEPOC) -- A European association has been
formed to combat piracy of scrambled audiovisual signals.  The Association
Europeenne pour la Protection des Oeuvres et services Cryptes (AEPOC) will
fight piracy by encouraging  antipiracy legislation and by coordinating
enforcement actions. AEPOC will also undertake research on piracy, and
organise seminars and other scientific activity.

  The formation of the new international association under Belgian law was
announced today by Carter Eltzroth, Executive Director, at an AEPOC meeting
held at the European Broadcasting Union in Geneva.  

  AEPOC addresses audiovisual piracy which takes the form of hacked
decoders and smart cards and commercialisation of these hacked products.
One estimate is that the losses - to the creative community, broadcasters
and consumers - from this piracy exceed 200 million ecus each year within
Europe.  AEPOC's public policy and enforcement activities will attack
piracy in both analogue broadcasting and digital video broadcasting.  AEPOC
supports the work of  the European Commission, as reflected in its 1996
Green Paper, to introduce a EU measure against hacking.

  Carter Eltzroth, AEPOC's Executive Director, said, "Piracy already harms
scrambled services in European markets.  Digital broadcasting will increase
the number of scrambled services and the commercial target for piracy will
grow.  Moreover, new problems will arise because of standardisation of DVB
consumer equipment and the launch of new media services beyond classic
broadcasting."

  "Technical security measures - use of conditional access systems - are
not enough.  Adequate legislation and enforcement are necessary complements
to scrambling and encryption," Carter Eltzroth added.

  Theo Peek, chairman of the DVB Project, welcomed the formation of AEPOC.
"The DVB Project has set the standard for the common scrambling algorithm
for digital video broadcasting. It has also made recommendations to the
European Commission on antipiracy measures. AEPOC is an important, and
necessary, extension of the work of the DVB
Project."

  The first  General Assembly of AEPOC's members will be held on 14 April
1997 in Cannes during the MIP international television programme market.
AEPOC has a broad membership, reflecting European consensus on the need to
fight hacking.  Its members include content providers, broadcasters,
manufacturers of consumer electronic products and infrastructure providers,
together with new entrants into scrambled broadcasting and conditional access.

(c)TELE-satellit 1997. All rights reserved.
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