Utah enacts net porn law

Found on The Register on Monday, 21 March 2005
Browse Censorship

Utah's governor has defied criticism from technology firms and free speech activists to sign into law a bill designed to protect children from Internet pornography.

ISPs in Utah have the option of blocking sites or providing customers with third=party filtering products unless they want to risk felony charges under the new law. The law states that: "Upon request by a consumer, a service provider may not transmit material from a content provider site listed on the adult content registry." Internet content providers that create or host data in Utah must properly rate the data or risk possible criminal charges.

Groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union go further and warn the bill violates the US Constitution's First Amendment on free speech and the Commerce Clause. Six other states have had similar legislation ruled unconstitutional, resulting in huge legal bills for residents, Media Coalition director David Horowitz told the Salt Lake City Tribune.

This is rediculous. There is software around to do that. You can even use your hosts file to assign another IP and reroute "offensive" domains. Taking responsibility away from the computer users (parents) only makes them stupid since they don't have to deal with it anymore. I would vote for a bill to protect people from dumb and clueless politicians.