Observing that more than 90% of the Web sites delivering sports programming into the country illegally are located outside of Polish jurisdiction, representatives of Sygnał delivered opinions in favor of site blocking legislation in that country.
They were panelists at the 50th International PIKE Conference and Exposition in Łódź. PIKE is the Polska Izba Komunikacji Elektronicznej (the Polish Chamber of Electronic Communications).
Teresa Wierzbowska, President of the Management Board of the Sygnał Association introduced a segment on piracy by listing ways that sports and premium content are protected in Western Europe, which include Web blocking, dynamic blocking and live blocking.
She noted that taking down illegal sports broadcasts and premium content within 30 minutes is under discussion at European Commission level (and is already the policy in Italy). Legal solutions are limited in Poland, and multi-layered concealment of data leads to lengthy and increased costs of proceedings.
Then came a panel session about international challenges in the fight against piracy. Panelists included representatives of the Motion Picture Association, Sygnał Association, the Premier League, Warner Bros., and Canal+. Signal’s Karolina Makowska drew attention to the financial consequences of the lack of a blocking mechanism.
Considering that administrators of Polish websites with pirated content register their activities to fictitious foreign entities, where the domain and hosting are often located on the other side of the world, such anti-piracy solutions are necessary. Poland cannot be left behind, because the current situation generates millions in losses for the creative market and the sports industry, she said.
Further reading
About blocking pirated sports content on PIKE. Article. October 5, 2023. Sygnał Association (Auto-translated from Polish to English by Google Translate)
50th International Conference and Exhibition PIKE. Conference Program. October 2-4, 2023. PIKE
Why it matters
Established in 2001, Sygnał is a media industry organization in Poland with membership consisting of broadcasters, distributors, licensors, recipients of TV programmes and other multimedia content.
Like similar anti-piracy organizations like Creative Content Australia, AVIA’s Coalition Against Piracy in South Asia, the Audiovisual Anti-Piracy Alliance (AAPA) in Europe, and others; Sygnał organizes events, pursues educational initiatives, and prepares reports, studies and opinions on IPR protection and piracy prevention issues. It provides its members with a forum “to cooperate and share experience, thus enhancing the effectiveness of activities related to the prevention of theft of audio and video content. It cooperates closely with organizations pursuing similar objectives.”
