Minnesota Gives In; Won't Block Gambling Sites

from the good-for-them dept

Tue, Jun 9th 2009 9:31am — Mike Masnick

Back in April, the state of Minnesota tried to force ISPs to block certain gambling websites. Similar attempts had been tried in a few other states, and quickly shot down by the courts -- and it didn't take long for a lawsuit to emerge in Minnesota. However, the good news is that the state has apparently agreed to back down rather than trying to fight a bogus and costly lawsuit. Basically, it sounds like enough lawyers explained to state officials that their likelihood of winning was pretty slim -- so the state just folded. At least they didn't keep trying to waste taxpayer money trying to fight for such censorship.

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Filed Under: censorship, gambling, minnesota, websites

6 Comments

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Elohssa (profile), 9 Jun 2009 @ 10:17am

Would it be too much to ask...
...for other states and organizations to learn a lesson from this?
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Anonymous Howard, Cowering, 9 Jun 2009 @ 10:26am

Yes. You have to think of the children. And re-election. And what about Internet bullies? And piracy?

ISPs are civilization's last line of defense agains the barbarian hordes!
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Tom Landry (profile), 9 Jun 2009 @ 11:53am

I beleive Minn. got burned already by grandstanding issues that are proven unconstitutional. Case in point, Jack Thompson-style video game legislation that they tried to ram through and got slapped down by the court.

At least they are learning from their mistakes which is more than I can say for some other states.
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- Dark Helmet (profile), 9 Jun 2009 @ 12:22pm
  
  Re:
  If it looks like a Canadian, smells like a Canadian, and talks like a Canadian....
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  - Anonymous Coward, 9 Jun 2009 @ 1:02pm
    
    Re: Re:
    They do sound just aboot the same now, don't they?
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Gambling Junkie, 21 Aug 2009 @ 7:49am

I agree
It would be hard to control that problem, their are still perpetrators who will make some access. Because of the big taxes generated out from it.
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