NEW YORK -- The
``We had clear legal advice that publication in the UK might run afoul of their law," spokeswoman Diane McNulty said yesterday. ``It's a country that doesn't have the First Amendment, but it does have the free press. We felt we should respect their country's law."
Visitors who click on a link to the article, published Monday, instead got a notice explaining that British law ``prohibits publication of prejudicial information about the defendants prior to trial." The blocked article reveals evidence in the alleged plot to use liquid explosives to down US airliners.
The Times site already targets ads based on a visitor's location, but McNulty said this was the first time the technology was used in an editorial capacity. The Times also blocked UK access to an audio of the article in question.
The underlying blocking technology, known as geotargeting or geolocation, checks the numeric Internet address of a visitor's computer against databases showing the company or service provider to which that address was assigned.