SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Department of Commerce has agreed not to enforce a controversial law demanding age-verification on adult content websites and cracking down on VPNs that seek to get around it — at least until a federal judge rules in the case.
Aylo Freesites, the owner of some of the largest adult websites in the world including Pornhub, is suing Utah over the law. They have asked a federal judge for an injunction that would block the law from going into effect, arguing it subjects any website that hosts adult content to potential civil or criminal liability.
So far, U.S. District Court Judge David Barlow has yet to issue a ruling on Aylo's injunction request.
But in a recent court filing obtained by FOX 13 News, the Utah Department of Commerce and Aylo entered into a joint stipulation. The agency would not enforce the new law pending Judge Barlow's ruling or until after administrative rules setting the specific terms that adult sites would have to follow to comply with the law are hammered out. In exchange, Aylo agreed to keep its current "geofencing practices" in place (Pornhub and other sites have blocked Utah IP addresses as a political protest of the Utah State Legislature's bills).
"Although Plaintiffs believe that the proposed rule is fundamentally flawed and does not eliminate their claims or the need for relief, this Period of Continued Forbearance allows Plaintiffs to participate in that rulemaking process without the threat of liability in the interim," Aylo attorney Daniel Schwei and assistant Utah Solicitor General Lance Sorensen wrote in the filing. "Additionally, this Period of Continued Forbearance provides the Court with additional time to resolve the current motion for a preliminary injunction, including the discretion to await the outcome of the rulemaking before deciding the motion. Absent contrary direction from the Court, the parties will continue to keep the Court apprised of the status of the rulemaking proceeding."
At the end of July's arguments, the attorneys signaled they would pursue this course of action.
Aylo's attorneys argued that the company does not want minors accessing adult content, but what Utah's law does is infringe on the privacy and rights of millions of people in and outside the state by demanding websites do more to verify a person's age and targeting virtual private networks and any other efforts to get around a block on a site. The Utah Attorney General's Office, representing the Utah Department of Commerce, has argued that Aylo may be interpreting the law too strictly, but also insists it should not be difficult to comply with.
Utah's law is considered one of the toughest in the nation.
