Registry suit action filed

A California-based trade association has no legal standing to challenge Utah's Child Protection Registry because it is not harmed by the attempt to keep sexually explicit solicitations out of children's e-mail in-boxes, according to court documents filed Monday.

Nor are the individual Free Speech Coalition's members, described in the lawsuit as some 3,000 producers and distributors of "sexually explicit but non-obscene expression," according to the motion to dismiss the coalition's November lawsuit.

Filed by Unspam Registry Services, a Park City-based company contracted by the state to maintain the online registry, the motion maintains the 2004 act does not affect the Free Speech Coalition because its weekly e-mails do not advertise or promote a service that minors are prohibited from viewing and/or purchasing.

The Utah Attorney General's Office, which represents the state in the federal lawsuit, joined Monday's motion.

The Child Protection Registry Act allows parents to register their children's e-mail addresses with the state, and businesses would be required to remove those addresses from their mailing list. It acts much like a "do-not-call list" for telemarketers. It was expanded this year to include cell phone numbers to prevent explicit text messages being sent to children's telephones.

The statute requires the communication to have the "primary purpose" of promoting material deemed harmful to minors. According to Monday's motion, that is not the case for the Free Speech Coalition, which sends a weekly "Free Speech X-Press" that reports on cases involving possible censorship. The e-mails do include a link to the coalition's Web site, which often advertises trade shows and conferences concerning the adult entertainment industry, but this is "ancillary" to the e-mails' primary purpose, the motion states.

For that reason, the motion states, the coalition "cannot demonstrate that its communications are covered by" the law it is seeking to have declared unconstitutional.

The Utah Child Protection Registry is still active and parents can continue to register their children's address and telephone numbers at www.kidsregistry.utah.gov while the lawsuit is pending.

---

E-mail: awelling@desnews.com