HB260 Utah Censorware Law and Censorware Research
One more note on the Utah state HB 260 censorware law. It has an intriguing provision for state-sponsored censorware research:
(3) (a) There is appropriated for fiscal year 2005-06, $50,000 from the General Fund to the Division of Consumer Protection.
(b) It is the intent of the Legislature that the Division of Consumer Protection use the monies appropriated for fiscal year 2005-06 in Subsection (3)(a) to research the effectiveness of:
(i) existing and emerging technologies for limiting access to material harmful to minors on the Internet;
(ii) obstacles to consumers limiting access to material harmful to minors on the Internet; and
(iii) methods of educating the public about the dangers of using the Internet.
(c) The Division of Consumer Protection shall report the findings of the research for which monies under Subsection (3)(a) are appropriated to the Utah Technology Commission before December 1, 2005.
Who gets to spend that $50,000, and where? (There are some deserving programmers who would love to get a piece of it ...). What safeguards are in place so that censorware company lies are challenged? Or will this be a rubber-stamp commission which gets its information from marketing material?
By Seth Finkelstein | posted in censorware | on March 25, 2005 11:59 PM (Infothought permalink)
