AAPA IN 2023: END OF YEAR REVIEW

AAPA in 2023: End of year review

• In 2023 we held 3 face-to -face meetings, hosted by Nove and Cosmote in Athens; the Deutsche Fusball Liga in Frankfurt and Synamedia in Staines-upon-Thames. A virtual meeting was also held in September.
• Guest speakers came from the UK Darkweb Intelligence, Collection and Exploitation, Eastern Region Special Operations Unit, who spoke about Generic Input on cryptocurrency investigations; OVH Cloud on the operation of its notice and take down process; WIPO on its Building Respect for IP programme; Nordemann on copyright and AI; Meta; the Hellenic Copyright Organization on the Greek legislature on Live Dynamic Blocking and the role of Administration Committee; and Europol on Operation Fairlands.
• As in previous years the member-led Working Groups provide members with the opportunity to share knowledge and expertise on topics of common interest.. For example, the Hosting Working Group addressed the 10 hosting providers deemed by AAPA members to be the least responsive in responding to take down requests. Initial responses provided by the hosting providers to AAPA highlighted that there is considerable room for improvement.
• The provision of training to law enforcement continues to feature prominently. We presented to the Eurojust Regional Prosecutors’ Network in Tallinn; CEPOL in Budapest and online; at the request of Europol to the Cyber Patrol week in Granada; and at the request of INTERPOL in Bogota and Seoul. The cornerstone event is the training under the auspices of EMPACT in Sofia and Bucharest.
• During the year Irdeto offered training to AAPA members on investigating streaming piracy. Similarly, Sky Italia provided train the trainer seminars.
• At the request of Europol, we supported operational raids which were organised by Belgian customs in Antwerp.
• AAPA participated in World IP Day. Interviews with 3 members highlighted the challenges and opportunities for women working in IP.
• In response to the weak substitute of the Commission’s Recommendation on Combating Live Event Piracy AAPA spoke at events organized by the Commission, the EUIPO IP Enforcement Summit in Sofia and a joint ACT-AAPA event in the European Parliament. We continued to participate in i-SOP, the EUIPO and WIPO and the INTERPOL and Europol IP Crime conferences. We presented the 6^th AAPA awards at its conference in Lisbon. This year the winner was the Dutch Fiscal Information and Investigation Service (Fiscale inlichtingen- en opsporingsdienst, FIOD) (Operation Fairlands) AAPA introduced a new category this year, giving an award to a public sector body acting in the Europol IP Crime conference host country, namely Portugal. The first such award was presented to Inspeção Geral de Atividades Culturais (IGAC) and its General Inspector Luis Silveira Botelho.
• Certificates of commendation were awarded to Podinspector Marcin Cyganek, an officer in the Central Bureau for Combating Cybercrime (CBZC), (previously the Cybercrime Unit in Katowice (Poland)). Bulgaria, Italy, and Spain – previous recipients of an AAPA award – also received Certificates of Commendation, Further information about these awards is at https://www.aapa.eu/aapa-announces-6th-anti-piracy-awards
• Mediastalker was welcomed as an AAPA member.
• 2023 also heralded a significant change in the management of AAPA. Our long-serving EVP, Sheila Cassells, announced she was standing down and the search is on for her successor.

AAPA — December 2023