Intellectual property/telecommunications: Conditional access proposal

United Kingdom

Conditional access proposal

The Commission has tabled a Proposal for a Directive on the legal protection of services based on, or consisting of, conditional access. The hope is to increase consumer choice and "cultural pluralism".

The Proposal covers all encoded services where encoding is used to ensure payment of a fee. This includes the Internet, as well as broadcasting services. Member States will be prevented from restricting both the free movement of conditional access devices and the provision of protective services which originate in another Member State. At the same time, they will have to prohibit the use of any equipment or software designed or equipped to give unauthorised access to a protected service.