UTAH – Despite much controversy and opposition, Utah governor, Republican Jon Huntsman, signed a bill on Monday that will require internet providers to block pornographic websites. The new legislation will create an official list, a registry of websites that contain or publicly make available material that is “harmful to minors.” Internet providers in Utah will be forced to provide their customers with a way to disable access to those sites listed in the registry. Failure to block access will result in felony charges. Failure to rate the site will also result in felony charges.
Technology companies argued the bill was constitutionally suspect, and too vaguely written to gauge its full impact. They argued it could also affect e-mail providers and search engines.
The bill, SB 260, states: “Upon request by a consumer, a service provider may not transmit material from a content provider site listed on the adult content registry.” Service providers are any person or company who “provides an internet access service to a consumer.” This could include everything from cable companies to coffee shops, schools and homes with wireless connections.
Eric Goldman, a professor at the Marquette University Law School in Milwaukee, Wis., criticized the validity of the law. “I am having a hard time seeing how this law will survive a constitutional challenge, given the track record of state anti-Internet porn laws–which are routinely struck down as violating the First Amendment and the dormant Commerce Clause.”
Although a similar law in Pennsylvania was struck down last year by a federal judge, spokesperson Tammy Kikuchi said that Huntsman “doesn’t have a concern about the constitutional challenge.”
NetCoalition, a lobbying group whose members include Google, Yahoo and CNET Networks, had urged the Utah Senate to consider how the legislation could adversely affect search engines, e-mail providers and web hosting companies.
The law is essentially aimed at content providers, in an effort to have them rate their websites on the registry list. According to the Utah attorney general, any company that “creates, collects, acquires or organizes electronic data” for profit which is deemed to host material that’s harmful to minors, must rate the site or face third-degree felony charges.
