L 320/54 Official Journal of the European Communities 28.11.98 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 THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Articles 57(2), 66 and 100a thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the Commission ('), Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee (%), Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Atrticle 189b of the Treaty (%), 1) Whereas the objectives of the Community as laid down in the Treaty include creating an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe and ensuring economic and social progress, by eliminating the barriers which divide them,; Whereas the cross-border provision of broadcasting and information society services may contribute, from the individual point of view, to the full effect- iveness of freedom of expression as a fundamental right and, from the collective point of view, to the achievement of the objectives laid down in the Treaty; Whereas the Treaty provides for the free movement of all services which are normally provided for remuneration; whereas this right, as applied to broadcasting and information society services, is also a specific manifestation in Community law of a more general principle, namely freedom of expression as enshrined in Article 10 of the Euro- pean Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms; whereas that Article explicitly recognizes the right of citizens to receive and impart information regardless of fron- tiers and whereas any restriction of that right must be based on due consideration of other legitimate interests deserving of legal protection; () OJ C 314, 16. 10. 1997, p. 7 and OJ C 203, 30. 6. 1998, p- 12 () oJ C 129, 27. 4. 1998, p. 16. () Opinion of the European Parliament of 30 April 1998 (O] C 152, 18. 5. 1998, p. 59), Council Common Position of 29 June 1998 (O] C 262, 19. 8. 1998, p. 34) and Decision of the European Parliament of 8 October 1998 (OJ C 328, 26. 10. 1998). Council Decision of 9 November 1998. ) Whereas the Commission undertook a wide- ranging consultation based on the Green Paper ‘Legal Protection of Encrypted Services in the Internal Market’; whereas the results of that consul- tation confirmed the need for a Community legal instrument ensuring the legal protection of all those services whose remuneration relies on condi- tional access; Whereas the European Parliament, in its Resolu- tion of 13 May 1997 on the Green Paper (*), called on the Commission to present a proposal for a Directive covering all encoded services in respect of which encoding is used to ensure payment of a fee, and agreed that this should include informa- tion society services provided at a distance by elec- tronic means and at the individual request of a service receiver, as well as broadcasting services; Whereas the opportunities offered by digital tech- nologies provide the potential for increasing consumer choice and contributing to cultural plur- alism, by developing an even wider range of services within the meaning of Articles 59 and 60 of the Treaty; whereas the viability of those services will often depend on the use of conditional access in order to obtain the remuneration of the service provider; whereas, accordingly, the legal protection of service providers against illicit devices which allow access to these services free of charge seems necessary in order to ensure the economic viability of the services; Whereas the importance of this issue was recog- nized by the Commission Communication on ‘A European Initiative in Electronic Commerce’; Whereas, in accordance with Article 7a of the Treaty, the internal market is to comprise an area without internal frontiers in which the free move- ment of services and goods is ensured; whereas Article 128(4) of the Treaty requires the Community to take cultural aspects into account in its action under other provisions of the Treaty; () OJ C 167, 2. 6. 1997, p. 31.