Times blocks article to U.K. Web readers

The technique is not foolproof.

A British computer modem could, for instance, make an international call to make the visitor appear to be coming from, say, the United States.

And British readers could find excerpts posted on Web journals and other unblocked sites. In fact, the Daily Mail of London published an article on the case, attributing details to the Times.

"No doubt an intrepid computer user will probably be able to access the article," Geist said. But "I suspect the majority simply won't bother."

Jonathan Zittrain, a law professor affiliated with Harvard and Oxford universities, said he doubts whether U.K. officials would crack down.

"They all basically want to say they made some effort," he said. The Times "can say the laws are respected. The British can say the laws are respected. And everyone can read the story."

McNulty said the technology may not be 100 percent reliable, but "we've done everything that we could."

The Times also is keeping the article out of printed editions published in the U.K. or mailed to U.K. subscribers. And it is stripping the item from a news service for ships and hotels printed by a company in Liverpool.

McNulty said the last time the newspaper blocked a specific article was about 15 years ago. The newspaper feared that Canadian authorities would confiscate an edition that reported on a sex abuse trial, she said, so the item was kept out of the early editions that got sent to Canada.

It's not clear whether the Times' decision would make it more likely for news organizations to engage in country-specific self-censorship in the future, particularly in areas involving libel, where protections aren't as strong outside the United States.

After all, courts already have applied country-specific laws to the borderless Internet.

An Australia court in 2002 allowed a defamation case against Dow Jones & Co. to be heard in that country because people there could have read the article in question online. The case was ultimately settled.

Earlier, a French judge had ordered Yahoo Inc. to prevent French users from encountering Nazi paraphernalia banned in France on the Yahoo auction site meant for U.S. visitors.

"Courts will start to take note of the availability of those technologies," Geist said. "Now that it's increasingly proven technology with a base level of effectiveness, I expect we'll see that consideration."

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