Directive 98/84/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 November 1998 on the legal protection of services based on, or consisting of, conditional access is a European Union directive in the field of intellectual property law, made under the internal market provisions of the Treaty of Rome. The Directive covers "conditional access services", which are defined as television or radio broadcasts or internet services to which "access in an intelligible form is made conditional upon prior individual authorisation" and payment. Examples are pay-per-view and encrypted television and internet sites which charge for access.
Member States may not restrict the provision of conditional access services which originate in another Member State . Devices intended to circumvent the access restrictions are prohibited (Art. 4).
Famous quotes containing the words conditional and/or access:
“The population of the world is a conditional population; these are not the best, but the best that could live in the existing state of soils, gases, animals, and morals: the best that could yet live; there shall be a better, please God.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The Hacker Ethic: Access to computers—and anything which might teach you something about the way the world works—should be unlimited and total.
Always yield to the Hands-On Imperative!
All information should be free.
Mistrust authority—promote decentralization.
Hackers should be judged by their hacking, not bogus criteria such as degrees, age, race, or position.
You can create art and beauty on a computer.
Computers can change your life for the better.”
—Steven Levy, U.S. writer. Hackers, ch. 2, “The Hacker Ethic,” pp. 27-33, Anchor Press, Doubleday (1984)