Groups sue to overturn Utah’s porn law
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BusinessWeek reports on a new lawsuit seeking to overturn Utah’s new anti-pornography law.
This lawsuit is potentially important. It seeks to overturn rules that direct the Utah Attorney General to seek out pornographic websites and then directs Utah ISPs to block access to those servers. Further, it lacks any meaningful review of the Attorney General’s decision.
The only real way to accomplish this is to block the Internet Protocol (IP) addresses of the servers. But, as any web host will attest, it is possible for a single IP address to house hundreds of domain names. Thus, it might be that my friend Lisa at Just a Girl might lose all of her readers in Utah because someone in the AG’s office didn’t like the content on my other friend Vinny’s blog, Insignificant Thoughts. Remember all that it takes to get blocked is a determination by the AG that a site is pornographic, and that there is no review process worthy of the name.
Should this lawsuit be dismissed or decided in the state’s favor, a horrid blow would be struck against the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of speech.
Groups involved as plaintiffs include:
- The King’s English Bookshop
- the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah
- the Sexual Health Network
- the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund
- Mountain Wireless
- CSolutions Inc
MickC @ June 9, 2005