After ownership of Utah Home Education Association's old Web site domain name lapsed, a porn site bought it. And although the home schooling organization has a newer, slightly modified Web address, anyone who types in the outdated domain name is led to a page with graphic, sexual images and references to "parental secrets" and "moms on film."

"There are predators out there," said Jon Yarrington, president of the UHEA, a volunteer group providing resources to more than 7,000 home school families in the state. "There are sick, putrid people who do this on purpose."

Registration records indicate that the former domain name was purchased at least as early as February 2005. The owner did not reply to an e-mail request for comment.

The home education association has been aware of the Internet dilemma since last fall when a former Web master contacted the group. A handful of adults notified the association of their own discovery over the past year. The Utah attorney general's office received a complaint about the Web site Monday.

"I'm not a fan or an advocate of much government or global regulation of anything," Yarrington said. "But when people refuse to be moral and decent and do what society expects them to do, then somebody has to step in and smack them."

Here's the catch: the Internet is something of a free-for-all where domain names can be bought and sold, particularly when ownership lapses.

"Freedom is a double-edged sword," Yarrington said. "It can be used for much good and it can be used for much evil."

But the home education group does have some options, according to John Delaney, a lawyer experienced with Internet domain name disputes at Salt Lake-based Parsons Behle & Latimer. It could complain to the company that registered the domain name and ask it to transfer the name back to UHEA. Another route would be asserting common law rights for the service mark UHEA, saying UHEA had historically been known and continues to be known by the name, providing services in connection with that name.

Because of that connection, the group can petition through the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers to have the domain name returned to it. Another option would be filing a complaint through federal court.

As of Wednesday, Yarrington said the association would try to inform as many people as it can of the current, accurate Web address, http://www.uhea.org, along with the fact that the old address was pirated. The Web site is primarily directed toward adults seeking resources on home schooling.

Just linking to porn doesn't necessarily give the attorney general's office any ammunition to act, according to Ken Wallentine, chief of investigations. "If [UHEA] let it expire, it's not a crime, he said." There's nothing for us to do. Unfortunately, there is no requirement that porn sites label their sites."

jlyon@sltrib.com

Nate Carlisle contributed to this report.

The correct Utah Home Education Association Web site is: www.uhea.org or www.uhea.com

UHEA Web site

The correct Utah Home Education Association Web site is: www.uhea.org or www.uhea.com