Netintelligence launches new solution to block illegal web broadcasts at source
Websites which breach UK copyright laws by offering football fans live games without subscription costs can now be blocked by the internet provider, thanks to a new service launched today by leading internet security firm Netintelligence.
Television companies and sports authorities are currently fighting an ongoing battle with websites, often operated from China or Egypt, which offer live, free Premiership games and other fixtures which require subscription or a one-off payment.
Netintelligence (Ni) Cloud Clean is a network-based system which prevents access to illegal sites - including sites hosting paedophilic material - without the user realising they have been actively blocked. Instead, an error message is displayed when someone tries to access an illegal site.
The software manages web addresses supplied by Controlled Content Providers (CCPs), which could be a law enforcement agency, a media rights or copyright owner, or another licensed provider of illegal website addresses, eg the Internet Watch Foundation.
Phil Worms, director of products and marketing at Netintelligence, said: "Media rights owning companies are struggling to contain these illegal websites, and many have had to bring in specialist companies whose sole job is to find these sites.
"We can take the URLs of these sites and add them to our database, so that when someone tries to view a Premiership match illegally via a website, or access paedophilic material, all they see is an error message saying 'website not found'.
"This is a problem which isn't going to go away easily, because when one site is shut down several more spring up in its place. Television companies are spending a fortune in legal bills to tackle these sites, but with Ni Cloud Clean installed in the network it's possible to simply block access to anyone attempting to visit a particular site."
Ni Cloud Clean is also valuable in protecting legitimate internet users who may accidentally stumble upon illegal content, such as child pornography. Again, these users will only see an error message as the URL is filtered by the Netintelligence database.
Phil said: "Large corporations can also use Ni Cloud Clean to ensure their employees don't deliberately or accidentally access illegal content on the web. As well as the obvious copyright protection benefits to media companies, the software provides peace of mind to companies who don't want to worry about their employees running into legal difficulties through using the internet at work."
"Whilst I understand that this system may raise concerns about personal choice and censorship, our view is simple, "if its illegal its illegal." With the many of the media companies becoming internet service providers in their own right, BskyB, for example, it makes sense for them to protect both their end users and their intellectual property at the same time."
About Netintelligence
Founded in 2000, Netintelligence is leading the market in delivering web based fully managed, internet security services for consumers and businesses. Netintelligence offers the next generation of internet security products - the 'online' security service.
Netintelligence uses the internet to automatically provide a wide range of critical security and protection features direct to an end users computer. An 'all in one service' that combines security with comprehensive monitoring and reporting, Netintelligence offers a truly unique service that equally protects both users and their computers from the threats of the internet.
Netintelligence recently launched their family-friendly 'Safekeeper' service in the US. Safekeeper allows parents to precisely control the internet activity of their children, and can be controlled remotely. The software also contains sophisticated security measures constantly updated by Netintelligence via the internet connection, including the Predator Alert databases.
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