>>> "WWW" = "Information Super Highway" <<<
>From www.wsws.org
WSWS : News & Analysis : The Internet
French anti-racist group sets dangerous precedent in court action against
Yahoo!
By Mike Ingram
17 April 2000
Back to screen version
A Paris-based anti-racism group is taking legal action against the Internet
portal Yahoo! over the auction of Nazi memorabilia on its web site. Yahoo! runs
public auctions in which users can post items for sale on which others users
then bid.
The International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism (Licra) called for a
boycott of Yahoo! sites in February in protest at the presence of Nazi
memorabilia in its online auction pages. It is now seeking an injunction in a
Paris court to force the California-based company to stop the sale in France.
Yahoo! does not sell such goods from its French site where such action would be
illegal, but no such legislation exists in the US.
Also in February, Yahoo! came under attack from the Anti-Deformation League,
which accused it of hosting dozens of sites that promoted messages from racist
hate groups including neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan. Yahoo! frequently
provides links to white supremacist and neo-Nazi organisations as background
material to their news articles. However healthy an opposition to such forces
may be, the action taken by Licra is both wrong and dangerous.
As an Internet portal, Yahoo! is not responsible for the content on either its
site or the auctions it carries. Items are submitted by readers and purchased
or read by other readers. Yahoo! is simply the carrier for such items.
Licra's demand for an injunction coincides with a number of other actions
against Internet Service Providers (ISP) and web sites, aimed at establishing
the responsibility of these for content, regardless of where it originates.
Most recently, a libel writ by Dr. Lawrence Godfrey forced Demon Internet in
the UK to pay �15,000 in costs. The case set a legal precedent that ISPs are
responsible for the information stored on their servers, including newsgroup
postings and web pages created by subscribers.
Legal experts said the action had widespread implications that went beyond the
borders of the UK. It effectively means that someone can sue�in the British
courts where libel law favours the plaintiff�an American ISP for an article
appearing in a US newspaper carried on their site. The Licra action would
extend this precedent in demanding that a French court exercise jurisdiction
over an American company and demand the removal of content because it is
accessible from within France.
The action by Licra is also fundamentally flawed not only from the standpoint
of democratic rights but that of political perspective. If the prevention of
the distribution of Nazi memorabilia will prevent the growth of right-wing and
fascistic forces, how does one explain the fact that in both France and
Germany, where such laws exist, we have witnessed not only the growth of
fascist movements, but racist and anti-immigrant policies being adopted within
the mainstream political establishment?
The issue that should occupy socialist and progressive forces is not protests
against the sale of fascist memorabilia but how to develop a coherent mass
political movement against such reactionary forces. In this the freedom of the
Internet is crucial. If the French courts can impose a ban on Yahoo!'s US site
on this issue, the way will be open for them and others to do so in relation to
other matters. On the Internet, as in other spheres of life, legal action
intended to oppose the forces of the right will inevitably be used with greater
force against those on the left.
Copyright 1998-2000
World Socialist Web Site
All rights reserved
>>> Another case of WW2 complicity denial? This is interesting given that the
French were more than well-enough prepared to repulse the Germans militarily in
1940. They just didn't. This is consistent with Dunkirk and a variety of
other engagements that went the German way early in the war (except the Germans
ultimately botched the Dunkirk one; had the Britlanders' backs against the sea
and let 'em go). Needless to say, most of Europe went over to the Germans or
their allies. Now, this censoring of the Yahoo! sites seems to want to make it
seem like the Germans were being repulsed all through the war ... by everyone
... no one accepted their defeat and let anyone change all the street signs to
German or fly the flag or anything signifying the German victory (albeit short
lived). A<>E<>R <<<
A<>E<>R
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