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or to impeach the honesty, integrity, virtue or reputation, or publish the natural defects of one who is alive, and thereby to expose him to public hatred, contempt or ridicule.

Incidentally, this statute may be unconstitutional by its construction. Either on an argument of "unconstitutionally vague or overbraod" or in that it appears to criminalize first amendment protected conduct. This depends on the state definition of defamation and whether the truth of the allegation is allowed as an affirmative defense.

"St. Paul has no such authority to license one side of a debate to fight freestyle, while requiring the other to follow Marquis of Queensberry rules."
R.A.V. v. ST. PAUL, 505 U.S. 377 (1992)

Since the Utah lege decided it was so: 76-9-502. Libel -- Elements -- Classification of offense. (1) A person is guilty of libel if he intentionally and with a malicious intent to injure another publishes or procures to be published any libel. (2) Libel is a class B misdemeanor. Note that there's no requirement that there be an incitement to violence, or anything else unusual. Whether this is a reasonable case to apply this law, or whether the cops should have gone in and confiscated a computer over an alleged misdemeanor, is another matter entirely. - Kevin

There are some ultra orthodox religious conservatives in Utah, and considering that the state legislature is about 70% Republican, with so much control that the Democrats can't even stop a bill even if it is vetoed by the Governor. This tends to make legislative activity more like political platform actions, and some people have even suggested that most state legislative action actually occurs during the state Republican party convention, or at least during the party legislative caucus meetings.

Even with all of that kept in mind, it is still surprising how much erotic literature can be found in paper form, even at public libraries in a very conservative state like Utah. And don't think that the people in Utah are technically illiterate. Senator Bob Bennett chairs the Senate Special Committee on the Year 2000 Technology Problem (The Y2K Comittee), in fact he helped push the formation of the comittee in the Senate. Utah is also home to tech companies like Novell, Caldera, Thiokol(the makers of the space shuttle booster rockets), Iomega, and many others. To say that Utah is being backward in their decisions is not really taking notice of what happened. The state legislature took the considered opinions of many tech professionals, together with the screaming opinions of a strong conservative religious constituancy and came up with the legislation that could be considered "the will of the people" in a representative democracy.

This isn't to say that this is a one-way street either. If it turns out that net filtering will keep out politically sensitive sites (which it does), it will eventually prove to be a faulty technology.

Maybe it's a lost cause, considering the State is over 70% Mormon, but I hunted around for some contact info. If you'd care to send an email to "the state" here's the URL: http://www.state.ut.us/contact.html. Personally, I'm laughing at the state right now. Remove playboy from the prisons, and watch the inmates get _real_ cranky, real fast. I can't wait for a playboy riot. I thought i came from an bass ackwards state!

This is a little off topic, but I think it is still appropriate with this tread so bear with me a little here.

Utah State Law has a minor provision with its alcohol laws that permit the sale of alcoholic beverages by "clubs" to its "members". This law was originally intended to allow operations like the VFW, Elks Club, ect. who typically have a bar for their members use. The idea is that the clubs can control the drinking habits of their members so the state doesn't have to regulate it as much as they do to open public taverns.

The only problem with this law is that it never specified what exactly constituted a "private club". If you are passing through the Salt Lake City airport, I think there is a "private club" you can join for a $10 annual membership (with a $10 coupon towards purchases of beverages in the "club"). The annual fee is the only membership requirement (oh... I guess you have to be of legal drinking age as well, but that is another issue).

"Clubs" like this are actually quite common throughout Utah, and it should prove to be very entertaining to see how many more "clubs" will be starting up with the 2002 Winter Olympics coming to town.

So in answer to the previous post... yes, I think a "software" club would be legal, but the question to beg and ask is who would "join" such a club or company? If the software is really that good then it would certainly be entertaining to see what folks would be saying about the "software clubs"? In addition, I fail to see how software produced in such an environment really would be better, but until something like that is actually setup and contested in court, the theorical discussion is really rather moot.