By Vassilis Koufopoulos

At the Three -Member Court of Appeals, the biggest trial ever in Greece began on March 12th in Greece with a total of audiovisual piracy. 17 defendants. Against them was formed, criminal in nature, Festival of establishment and participation in a criminal organization, infringements of copyright laws.

From the pre -trial work, it had emerged that members of the criminal organization over the last 8 years have channeled to the market for illegal subscription channels, using specialized technical means, illegal software, as well as specialized decoders. The research was undertaken by the Patras Security Directorate, and as the members of the organization emerged from the details, having formed the largest clientele in Greece with 13,000 people, from whom they managed to obtain illegal asset benefit of a total amount of above 25 million euros at the same time causing financial damage to beneficiary companies, height EUR 100 million.

The new legal status recently passed by the government to deal with audiovisual piracy is much tighter. Provides:

  • Imposing an administrative fine on the end user of pirate subscription, to those who promote public, illegal, protected content, with or without commercial benefit (pirate traffickers, cafes & bars with pirate subscriptions) and to those who advertise pirate services or advertise them.
  • The administrative fines provided for are 750 euros for the end user, 1,500 euros for pirate traffickers and € 5,000 for coffee, bars, etc. and for those who advertise pirate services or advertise to them. In case of relapse, administrative fines are doubled (1,500, 3,000 and 10,000 euros respectively).
  • Dynamic Blocking (Process Fast Track Access to Protected Content within 30 minutes) and for movies and series, except for athletic content.