According to South Holland resident Lisa Kozlowski, the town’s decision to block the on-demand signal smacks of censorship. When she confronted town officials about the blocked signal, they said, “You can’t watch porn in South Holland.”
Town officials cited a franchise agreement the community signed with a former cable company in the 1990s that granted the cable operator the right to provide service in the area.
“In keeping with the prevailing community standards and the long established values associated with our motto of faith, family and future, the village has franchise agreements that protect these standards and values,” a town official said in a statement.
Illinois American Civil Liberties Union legal director Harvey Grossman said the franchise agreement isn’t the final word on the matter.
"The contract can't waive the Constitution," he said. "This kind of censorship — and it clearly is censorship — raises very serious constitutional issues.”
For Kozlowski’s part, the right to watch adult content isn’t the issue.
"I don't care about the porn,” she said. “I don't want to watch the porn. I just want on- demand.”
Comcast has said it will comply with the terms of the franchise agreement. However, officials from the company said that they would prefer to offer the service to the town and let users make their own decisions regarding adult content.
Comcast, which inherited the franchise from AT&T broadband four years earlier, offers built-in parental controls, which allow customers to block objectionable content.
South Holland officials said they would like the company to find a way to deliver on-demand, which also features a great deal of mainstream content, to its residents without any adult material in the feed.
The ACLU said they would be interested in pursuing a case against the town, if a resident would come forward with a complaint.