Less than a week after a Pittsburgh court imposed a 90-day injunction on website iCraveTV, president Bill Craig says his company has almost completed development of a new technology that would block Americans from accessing the site and subsequently allow iCraveTV to resume operations.

The new technology, called iWall, is proprietary and will be patented, says Craig, who believes he’ll be ready to officially announce the new development by the end of February.

iWall is what Craig calls an Internet wall that fences in territories and countries by using 1-800 phone numbers, pin numbers and cookies.

The software will determine the location of the users’ Internet service provider and will only permit access to those using isp’s that serve Canadians exclusively. It will also prohibit access through the ‘back door.’

So far, Craig estimates investing about $1 million in the development of iWall, which he says is ‘mostly software.’

The development team includes u.s.-based Sun Computers and Real Networks, and Canadian-based Futureway and Ace.

If iWall passes muster in the u.s., iCraveTV could be back in business sooner than never as the Canadian coalition of broadcasters and the cftpa group do not have a restraining order on the site and are not set to appear in court until May.

The u.s. plaintiffs, which include Disney, Columbia Tristar and the nfl, achieved a 90-day, preliminary injunction on Feb. 8 against iCraveTV, on the basis that the site was illegally transmitting u.s.-owned programming to u.s. audiences. If Craig’s new technology works, the issue could become moot, at least where the Americans are concerned.

And on a broader scale, if iWall is what Craig purports it to be, he will once again make international headlines, this time for pioneering technology that could change the seemingly impossible legalities of webcasting.

Meantime, Craig and Ian McCallum, vp of corporate sales and development for TVRadioNow – the company that controls iCraveTv – were in Washington on Feb. 16 speaking in front of u.s. Congress at a hearing on copyright and Internet issues entitled ‘iCraveTV and other developments in the Internet Business.’ They were invited by the House Commerce Committee on Telecommunications, Trade and Consumer Protection.

At the hearing, McCallum highlighted the short history of iCraveTV, reitterated the company’s willingness to pay the appropriate royalties and touched on the new technology.

While all involved parties are looking to find a settlement, Craig says ‘there’ll be no settlement if it means death to iCrave.’

‘We’re not fazed,’ he says in reference to the millions of dollars it will cost the fledgling company to fight a court battle. ‘It’s all part of the price of getting it going. It’s a development cost. The cost of finding a place on the shelf.’