A new patent has been filed by computer security firm McAfee that aims to expand its SiteAdvisor service to include the blocking of pirated content.
McAfee's SiteAdvisor is a feature within McAfee's security products, as well as a standalone website. The SiteAdvisor tool adds indicators to search engine results to indicate whether the links are safe or not. Up until now, SiteAdvisor only checks websites for malicious content, but the new patent would expand SiteAdvisor's functionality to check for copyright infringement as well.
Websites deemed to be offering pirated content by SiteAdvisor would be indicated with a warning icon. When users still decide to click through the search engine result link, SiteAdvisor would present the user with a warning screen that either still allows the user to visit the link, or prevents all access, depending on the software's settings.
In addition, links to where the user can obtain the legal version of the same or similar content.
The patent application cites violation of intellectual property rights and "potential threats cause by some unauthorized distributions" as reasons for implementing the feature outlined by the patent.
As this is only a patent application, there are no details regarding when or even if this technology will be added to McAfee's security tools.
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