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Yahoo must face French legal action Tue Aug 24, 9:17 AM ET By Howard Mintz, Mercury News In a decision that could expose U.S.-based Web sites to free speech laws of other nations, a federal appeals court on Monday found that Yahoo could not escape legal action in France for violating a French ban on the sale of Nazi-related items. A divided panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ( - ) concluded that U.S. courts did not have blanket power to block foreign countries from enforcing their laws against Web sites such as Yahoo, the latest chapter in a case that has tested Internet free speech rights in unsettled global legal terrain. The case stems from a fight over whether Yahoo could be sanctioned by the French courts for allowing the sale of a host of Nazi items, including copies of Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" and materials alleging that the gas chambers of the Holocaust didn't exist. Reverses 2001 ruling The appeals court decision reversed a 2001 ruling by a San Jose federal judge who found that Yahoo's First Amendment rights protected the company against the orders of a French court. The 9th Circuit, while noting that Yahoo could still raise its First Amendment defense if French authorities turn to the U.S. courts to enforce their orders, said obeying other nations' laws is the price of doing international business. "Yahoo cannot expect both to benefit from the fact that its content may be viewed around the world and to be shielded from the resulting costs," Judge Warren Ferguson wrote for a 2-1 majority. The 9th Circuit ruling did not directly address San Jose U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel's free speech findings. Instead, the court found that U.S. courts do not have jurisdiction to trump the orders of a foreign court without that foreign government first bringing the dispute into the American legal system. As a result, Yahoo, backed in the case by the American Civil Liberties Union ( - ) and other free speech advocates, said the ruling would have minimal impact. The company vowed to reassert its free speech arguments if French officials attempt to enforce an earlier judgment that Yahoo must pay fines for allowing the auction of Nazi memorabilia. Robert Vanderet, Yahoo's attorney, added that the company might still appeal the 9th Circuit's ruling, but was satisfied it is narrow enough to avoid major free speech obstacles. Richard Jones, the lawyer for two French human rights groups that sued Yahoo to get the Nazi items removed, could not be reached Monday. But the groups have argued in the past that Yahoo's position essentially foisted American speech values on the rest of the world. French anti-hate laws In 2000, a French court sided with the groups and found that Yahoo had violated French anti-hate laws when it allowed online auction listings of about 1,000 Nazi-related items. The court ordered Yahoo to face a $13,000-per-day fine if it didn't block access to Nazi objects within France. Yahoo filed suit in San Jose against the two French human rights groups that brought the case in Paris. Later, Yahoo removed a variety of the disputed items only from its French subsidiary, saying it was responding to customers, not the French court orders. Fogel then ruled that Web sites operated by Yahoo are not subject to French laws, warning that the French court orders posed a direct threat to Yahoo's First Amendment rights. Judge Melvin Brunetti of the 9th Circuit dissented, saying that the French court orders go directly to Yahoo's California-based business operations and are fair game for the U.S. court system now, particularly because Yahoo already faces fines for non-compliance. "The threat to Yahoo is concrete and growing daily," Brunetti wrote. ------- "The world Orwell described does not require complete control of the press, just a very large market share." -Kuro5hin Poster _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
