Union acts to combat piracy on the air waves

Date: 25/06/1998

By Peter Chapman

EU MOVES to thwart TV decoder piracy are set to reach the statute books by the end of this year.

The draft rules unveiled a year ago would force member states to prohibit the manufacture, import, sale, advertising, possession, installation, maintenance or replacement of 'illicit devices' such as pirate decoders and smart cards used to tune in to subscription services.

Internal Market Commissioner Mario Monti sees the rules, which also cover pay-to-view radio and Internet services, as a key contribution to the EU's new media explosion. “Without pan-European protection, service providers will be reluctant to invest in conditional access services, which are one of the most promising areas of industrial growth,” he explained.

Monti's piracy rules, which will hit an emerging trade in pirate kit (much of which enters the EU market via Germany), are under the spotlight at a time when his anti-trust colleague Karel van Miert has sparked a storm by blocking the merger of Kirch and Bertelsmann's digital pay-TV platforms. Critics accuse him of stalling developments in the sector.

New-media players such as Rupert Murdoch's BSkyB have welcomed Monti's plan. “We are delighted with the directive and its advent,” said an EU affairs expert for BSkyB. “We support the European Commission in its proposal and welcome the European Parliament's position.”

The pay-TV giant's only disappointment is that the proposal does not make personal possession of devices illegal, even though the UK and France do. The BSkyB executive warns that the directive fudges the issue of what punishments member states should impose. “We would have supported an endorsement of criminal sanctions. But of course the EU said that it is not able to deal with criminal issues in a directive,” he said.

Under the proposals, member states would have to put in place 'effective sanctions' against pirates.

Service providers such as BSkyB would be allowed to bring an action for damages or even the seizure of pirate pay-TV technology via national authorities.

The industry must now wait for MEPs to give the draft directive a second reading, probably in the autumn, before it can be formally adopted by single market ministers.