The European Commission is proposing the ratification of a Council of Europe Conditional Access convention in a bid to act against smart card piracy.
The convention would put in place legal protection against the piracy of conditional access systems in pay-TV. The Commission believes this would also assist the rollout of video-on-demand services, both over the open internet and mobile platforms.
Although a 1998 Directive already provides protection within Europe’s borders, this new Convention would extend the same protection to the 47 Member States of the Council of Europe.
The Commission hopes that by taking the lead in the ratification of the agreement, non-EU members would be encouraged to step up their own ratification processes.