News

The Warsaw Declaration

35 international and local organisations, institutions and companies declared their willingness to cooperate in an effort to combat internet piracy in response to the globalisation of cybercrime. The announcement of mutual support as well as experience sharing is the core of the “Warsaw Declaration”, which came to fruition during the International Content Protection Summit in Warsaw.

The “Warsaw Declaration” underlines the importance and the role of international cooperation between organisations, institutions, governmental bodies and companies in combating internet piracy. It expresses the willingness to share best practices and experiences in order to develop and popularise effective methods of combating internet piracy, including but not limited to, legal action, “follow the money” as well as various educational initiatives.

The draft of the Declaration was created during the International Content Protection Summit (ICPS), which took place in Warsaw on the 18th and the 19th October of this year. The participants of the event discussed characteristics and the scale of piracy in individual countries as well as the current measures aimed at preventing cybercrime. They shared experiences, discussed examples of international actions as well as legal and operational aspects of activities, including the cooperation with the advertising market and payment providers in order to limit the illicit trade of video content by means of blocking illegal websites as well as educational activities and undertakings aimed at raising awareness about intellectual property infringement.

“Piracy is currently a highly profitable undertaking with a complicated network of relations. There is proof of its connections to other types of crime. The alarming figures concerning the scale of theft and illegal trade of audiovisual content are a motivating factor to take action. Holding the first international meeting on combating piracy in our region was aimed at underlining the value of experience sharing and the necessity of cooperation between organisations, institutions and governmental bodies as well as businesses from various countries,” commented Teresa Wierzbowska, the President of the Board of the Sygnał Association.

The 120 participants of the ICPS were representatives of organisations, institutions and companies from all around Europe as well as from other continents – from Belgium, Denmark, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Latvia, Germany, Switzerland, Russia, Serbia, Ukraine, Great Britain, Italy, the United Arab Emirates and the United States.

The Conference was organised by the Sygnał Association with the support of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (MKIDN), the Office of Electronic Communications (UKE), the Polish Chamber of Commerce for Electronics and Telecommunications (KIGEiT) and the Polish Confederation Lewiatan, with the media partnership of Business Insider, Discovery, TVN, Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, Polsat, Press, Rzeczpospolita and TVP.

WARSAW DECLARATION (pdf)

Read more: