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The year 2024 could be a breakthrough in the standardization of intellectual property protection mechanisms in Europe. Increasing awareness of the value of copyright translates into the implementation of increasingly sophisticated mechanisms for responding to illegal distribution of content online. The European Commission’s recommendations, as well as an ongoing study of their application throughout 2024, […]

The audiovisual market loses nearly PLN 3 billion annually due to video content theft. 7.3 million Polish internet users access sites offering illegal access to audiovisual content. Despite the fact that the number of internet users resorting to pirate sources has decreased by 900,000 over the past six years, the phenomenon generates increasing losses for […]

On 19 December 2022, a cooperation agreement was signed between the National School of Judiciary and Public Prosecution and the Signal Association in the field of joint education on the fight against online video content theft. The cooperation initiated at the Continuous Training and International Cooperation Centre of the National School of Judiciary and Public Prosecution in Lublin will include the organisation and implementation of training courses, conferences and seminars for prosecutors and judges on the protection of intellectual property and the fight against copyright infringement, as well as the exchange of good practices in this area.

Pirates are earning less and less from advertising, and the ‘follow the money’ strategy is working, according to White Bullet’s report on piracy funding on the Polish internet from advertising in Q2 2022. Estimated advertising revenue generated by traffic from Poland on the monitored sites fell by 39%. Moreover, only ten websites account for more than two-thirds of the identified estimated ad revenues.

The lifting of pandemic restrictions allows us to return to on-site training and conferences. We are starting in June with a series of regional workshops for police officers as part of the celebration of our association’s 20th anniversary. Teresa Wierzbowska, President of Sygnał, spoke with insp. gen. Jaroslaw Szymczyk, Commander-in-Chief  of Police, about the partnership […]

White Bullet, a British company dealing with the protection of intellectual property and brand security on the Internet, joined the educational campaign of Sygnal “Follow the money”. This is an action under which, since 2017, the association, incl. provides advertisers with lists of infringing sites.

44% of internet users have a negative or definitely negative attitude towards piracy of video content, and for 29% piracy is dangerous and unethical. Still, the most common association with piracy is free services (42%). According to the respondents, the most negative consequences related to the use of pirated websites are infection with malware (48%) and losses for authors (47%).

The coronavirus pandemic has limited some of the Sygnal Association’s activities. Since March, training for law enforcement agencies on the theft of intellectual property on the Internet and theft of television signals has been discontinued. The participation of Sygnal’s members in police projects has been limited. It was also not possible to organize the next editions of the conferences in Piła and Ossa.

Actions under the “Follow the money” campaign are paying off! The number of offers to sell access codes to paid pirate websites continues to decline. This is possible thanks to the cooperation of the companies associated in Sygnal with Polish and foreign sales and advertising platforms.

The Sygnał Association submitted comments to the European Commission in the framework of public consultations of a document of the Roadmap type concerning the protection of intellectual property rights (Intellectual property action plan).