For years the MPAA and RIAA have been warning people not to visit The Pirate Bay and other sites where pirated files are traded. These sites pose a threat to the public, they argue, and now McAfee appears to agree. McAfee's free diagnostic tool Security Scan Plus is currently branding several file-sharing related sites and services (The Pirate Bay included) as "harmful."

Interestingly, McAfee's tool is not very consistent. The Pirate Bay stopped being a threat when we performed a new scan, with Torrentz.eu and Kat.ph taking its place. When we pushed the "scan again" button once more ThePirateBay.org reappeared together with PirateProxy.net. Adding to the already confusing results, it's also quite odd that only The Pirate Bay's former .org domain is listed, as this currently acts as little more than a redirect to the newer .sx domain name.

Security Scan Plus is not much more that a marketing vehicle to get people to buy McAfee products, so perhaps we shouldn't expect too much from it. That said, it would be helpful to get some additional information on why these sites are classified as security threats. One option could be that these sites work with suspicious ad networks. However, this doesn't apply to BTGuard, a BitTorrent proxy and VPN provider that doesn't have any advertising on its website.

We assume that McAfee pulls the threat data from its SiteAdvisor tool. Here ThePirateBay.org is categorized as "Potential Illegal Software," the same label as many other torrent sites. BTGuard is even more dangerous according to the security company, but no additional information other than categorizing the site as "Potential Illegal Software, Anonymizers" is offered.

The above isn't exactly promising for the new anti-piracy tool the company is developing to extend its SiteAdvisor service. Earlier McAfee submitted a patent for a system that can detect and block pirated material from any website and present users with authorized and legal alternatives. By preventing people from inadvertently visiting pirate websites, McAfee hopes that the technology will educate consumers on how to make the right choices when looking for entertainment online.

Unfortunately, at the moment McAfee is mostly showing how inaccurate classification systems can lead to overblocking.