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Court agrees with EFF: Utah's VPN law demands a technical impossibility

802 points · 405 comments · hn_acker

  1. SoftTalker · · focus · HN ↗
    > platforms are left with an impossible choice: completely block all VPN traffic nationwide or withdraw access from Utah entirely

    Is it even possible to reliably know that a connection is from a VPN? Anyone can proxy through a random hosting provider.

    1. babelfish · · focus · HN ↗
      It seems like withdrawing from Utah is the obvious option
      1. [deleted] · · focus · HN ↗

        [deleted]

      2. gwbas1c · · focus · HN ↗
        That was what the law attempted to do: Ban porn in Utah.

        There is a very vocal anti-porn group in Utah. They do things like put up massive billboards that say "[Store name] sells porn." (Which is basically free advertising instead of shaming.)

        1. hedora · · focus · HN ↗
          Right, but if everyone serving porn did that (e.g., google image search, so I guess all of Google should ban Utah), then people would just send money out of state for vpn access, and probably remember the annoyance when it was time to vote.
          1. gwbas1c · · focus · HN ↗
            People in Utah are different than the average American. I suspect they watch less porn. When I drove through in 2002, their "sex symbol" billboards involved a pretty couple with their kids in the background.

            It's a fun place to visit!

      3. spuz · · focus · HN ↗
        As the article explains - this was not an option.

        >SB 73 burdens the rights of all internet users outside of Utah because it requires adult websites to either know every visiting user’s physical location, and then block those in Utah, or to verify every visitor’s age just in case they might be in Utah. The law’s “actual-location provision in practice requires an entity to perform age verification services for every user visiting its site from any location because the entity would violate the law if even one of those users happened to be obfuscating,” the court wrote.

        In order to withdraw from Utah, they would be forced to block traffic from everywhere since it's possible that some kid in Utah used a VPN to make it look like they lived in Singapore.

        1. backpackviolet · · focus · HN ↗
          It’s really simple, require Utah to remove all their land lines satellite dishes and towers. Anyone found connecting to the internet from Utah and you fine the state of Utah
          1. someonebaggy · · focus · HN ↗
            But you don't have the power to issue fines, because you are not the state of Utah
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