A recent European Commission (EC) report makes a series of recommendations to fight smart card piracy and is getting rave reviews from a key industry group. The European Association for the Protection of Encrypted Works and Services (AEPOC) backs the recommendation by the European Union‘s regulatory arm to set up a coherent legal framework across Europe to stop individuals and organizations from producing illegal smart cards.

Satellite pay-TV operators across Europe lose millions of euros each year, due to people accessing pay-TV content for free. AEPOC President Jean Grenier told SATELLITE TODAY: “We welcome the EC report.We have estimated the [overall] costs of piracy at 1 billion euros a year. We support the EC’s view strongly in terms of having a coherent, pan-European legal framework. We have had dialogue with the EC on this, so we are not totally surprised by the report.”

An exclusive interview with Jean Grenier can be found in the May 21 issue of Interspace. For more information about subscribing to PBI Media’s satellite newsletters, check out our Web site at http://www.telecomweb.com/catalog