Just what is "sex" on the 'Net?

States are having a hard time controlling what could be considered the raunchier portions of the freewheeling Internet. Case in point: A federal judge struck down a Virginia law in February that barred state employees from using state-owned computers to surf sexually explicit Internet sites.

The law was intended to keep state workers from wasting time and state money on inappropriate Internet searches. But because it defined nudity as sexually explicit material, the law also affected material that professors at state colleges wanted to use in such courses as art history, human sexuality, English literature and psychology, according to Kent Willis, Virginia director, American Civil Liberties Union.

Six college professors and the ACLU filed the suit, arguing it was technically illegal for the Virginia instructors to do Internet research on nude portraits or classic literature that used erotic language. U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema ruled that the law was overly restrictive of free speech even though the state allowed employees to apply for exemptions that would let them access explicit Web sites.

Meanwhile another storm is brewing in Loudoun County, Va., in a lawsuit filed by library patrons who have been denied access to information on breast cancer, sex education, and...