AAPA in 2020
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AAPA in 2020
- The pandemic brought new forms of, and more, piracy. And AAPA members, with the support of law enforcement, rose to the challenge. Major international operations were co-ordinated by Europol and Eurojust and resulted in arrests, seizure of assets, and substantial disruption to pirate services. (For example, Europol and Eurojust).
- A number of AAPA members saw legal success in obtaining blocking orders in Denmark, Italy, Russia, Singapore and Malaysia. (For example, Rights Alliance and TorrentFreak).
- AAPA held one face to face meeting – in Paris in January. The Secretary General of Hadopi spoke about their work in France and INTERPOL updated the group about their plans for digital piracy activities.
- Subsequent meetings took place virtually. We were joined by guest speakers from Brein, Europol, Eurojust, INTERPOL, the U.S. IPR Center and the FBI.
- We welcomed Leakid, the Rambler Group and Wiley as members.
- We provided pre-operational training for euro2020 in Alicante in February. euro2020 was subsequently postponed.
- With Dentons (Frankfurt) we held 3 webinars about piracy in the pandemic; collaboration with law enforcement; and getting your money back.
- We also presented to the Europol IOS XI meeting in July and we contributed extensive material for its illegal streaming publication and campaign (Europol).
- We partnered with UL in November in its BeSafeBuyReal campaign (AAPA).
- We made submissions to the Digital Services Act and the Strengthening Europol’s mandate consultations and contributed to the EUIPO’s submission on reinstating IP crime as an EMPACT priority. (AAPA).
- The AAPA awards for 2020 were presented (virtually) to joint winners: the Proc. della Procura della Repubblica di Napoli, The Italian Judicial Authority, and the Guardia de Finanza team. AAPA also presented two commendations: one to the Eurojust team which collaborated the Black IPTV/XTream Codes operation and the other to The Bulgarian Cybercrime Department from the General Directorate Combating Organized Crime of the Ministry of Interior (AAPA).
- The AAPA Working Groups were revamped and continued to work effectively in the areas of hosting infrastructure, social media, disruption, training and awareness and policy and regulation.
- We continued to build constructive relationships with other stakeholders such as Alibaba and Facebook.
- We are pleased to continue our participation in EUIPO Observatory meetings.
- Sadly, due to the current circumstances some members of the AAPA family left us. Others moved to new opportunities. We wish them all well for the future.
- Our resolution for 2021 is to continue the fight against piracy through fostering collaboration and co-operation with law enforcement and other private and public stakeholders. We are in this together and look forward to working with you.
