The city known as the “Heart of Screenland” and home to three film studios has added Audible Magic’s CopySense Network Appliance to filter illegal and problematic content from their open network. Culver City was the first Los Angeles municipality to offer its own free all-access wireless Internet system for the public.
The decision to implement filtering technology was the result of a CopySense Network analysis that disclosed the fact that Culver City’s network included some illegal trading of copyrighted music, movies, and other video content, including pornographic videos and access to pornographic websites.
The city was praised for the move by the Motion Picture Association of America Inc. (MPAA). “We congratulate Culver City for taking the initiative to implement content filtering on their network. Wireless Internet access can provide the public with tremendous opportunity to make business conducted on computers even more portable,” says Dan Glickman, president of MPAA. “Audible Magic’s filtering solution will help safeguard system users from being subject to illegal files.”
Culver City offers its residents a public Wi-Fi system, which covers 10 square blocks in the city’s newly renovated Town Plaza. The system was added as part of a ten-year development project that transformed the old downtown area into a scenic locale of trend-setting restaurants, retail shops and galleries. Businesses, citizens, and visitors can now utilize free wireless Internet access, indoors and outdoors, within the coverage area.
John Richo, director of information technology for the city of Culver City, says, “Our campaign initially said ‘free and open Wi-Fi access to everybody.’ As part of the incentive plan to bring pedestrian traffic to Town Plaza, people were quick to sign up, and it was clear this was going to be a popular offering. It was only after we saw an activity report from CopySense Appliance that we realized there were potential problems.”
Richo says the report made by Audible Magic reflected illegal download use. In addition, bandwidth was being consumed by users of adult sites. Richo stresses dismay that tax dollars were paying for the activities and praised CopySense for allowing the city’s Wi-Fi network to “operate smoothly by identifying and blocking certain transmitted files that represent undesirable or unlawful material.”
From its existing database, CopySense will specifically match and block only transmissions identified as illegal or pornographic.
The six-year old Northern California-based Audible Magic Corporation provides content management and anti-piracy services to governmental and educational institutions and media and entertainment industries. The company’s digital technology and services are designed to monitor, track, manage, filter, and monetize digital content in all of its forms.
“Municipalities across the nation are establishing public wireless networks. They need to understand the challenges they will encounter when deploying these types of networks. They will want to implement measures to ensure their citizens get a positive user experience,” says Vance Ikezoye, founder and chief executive officer of Audible Magic. “Unauthorized or pornographic P2P file-sharing applications can crowd out legitimate uses of the Internet and can expose the public and especially minors to unnecessary risks. Our products provide municipalities a simple and effective solution that dramatically reduces the risk of a problem involving their community.”
Culver City is home to nearly 40,000 residents.
