"Of the four industries, including alcohol, tobacco, gambling and pornography, that are regulated by this law, I would've never guessed it would be the pornography industry that would have the gall to stand up and say they have the right to continue to send porn to Utah's kids," Prince said.

He pointed out that distribution of adult materials has always been against Utah's decency laws and unsolicited e-mails shouldn't be exempt.

The Child Protection Registry Act went into effect July of 2005 and allows parents of minors to sign up at www.UtahKidsRegistry.com, enrolling their e-mail account to keep it off of lists that spammers use to send inappropriate messages. Already, more than 200 businesses in Utah have voluntarily "scrubbed" their lists, removing addresses of minors to avoid any possibility of prosecution under the law.

"By shutting this down, they're really choking off one revenue source the state could use in prosecuting people who abuse or prey upon children online," Prince said. Similar to the Do-Not-Call list, the state collects funds by executing the registry, but there is no cost to individuals who ask to have their addresses on it.

Even though the program was initially reviewed by constitutional experts, state officials expected lawsuits to be filed by the adult-product industry in an attempt to "side-step the laws," as Prince said. "If Utah loses this case, it will hurt basic protections the state can offer its children," he said.

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E-mail: wleonard@desnews.com