In their formal evaluation of the European Directive on Electronic Pay-Services (98/84/EC), the European Commission strongly promotes legal measures against copyright infringements. The report, published 2 weeks ago, evaluates the implementation and enforcement of the directive by member states and candidate countries, from its adaptation in November 1998 through to December 2002. Part of the report is dedicated to the problems with satellite TV. According to the authors, a significant amount of piracy is caused by the fact that many EU-citizens are unable to access protected satellite TV channels originating from other member states, even if they are willing to pay for it. The industry is called upon to actively seek contractual solutions.

If that could be seen as criticism of the entertainment market, the rest of the report is devoted to the need for 'a coherent pan-European legal framework against the piracy of electronic pay services', in which any form of piracy is to be considered a cybercrime. "(There is a) need for a balanced and coherent enforcement framework applicable to all kinds of piracy and counterfeiting and agreed at Community level and the distribution of keys and illicit devices via the Internet."

On the legal protection of electronic pay services - COM (2003)198 (24.04.2003)
http://europa.eu.int/comm/internal_market/en/media/condac/functioning/...