The amicus brief:
http://www.cdt.org/jurisdiction/010813yahoo.pdf

Previous Politech articles:
http://www.politechbot.com/p-02118.html
http://www.politechbot.com/p-01602.html

*******

Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2001 13:39:22 -0400
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Industry Groups Rally to Oppose French Court Ruling Against Yahoo

Industry Groups Rally to Oppose French Court Ruling Against Yahoo

CDT Applauds Friend of the Court Filing in Yahoo v. LICRA

A range of major business organizations and Internet industry associations
have this week filed a brief supporting Yahoo's legal challenge to a French
court ruling that raises fundamental issues of jurisdiction in cyberspace.
The brief, filed last week in US District Court in California in the case of
Yahoo! Inc. v. LICRA, argues that US courts may not enforce judgments of
foreign courts that lack personal jurisdiction over US defendents.  Under
the French court's thoery of personal jurisidiction, every American company
with an Internet presence would be subject to the personal jurisdiction of
every foreign country in the world.  Not only would such a result be
inconsistent with the law, it would be devastating to the development of the
Internet.

Industry groups filing include the United States Chamber of Commerce, the
United States Council for International Business, the Information Technology
Association of America, the Online Publishers Association, the United States
Information Industry Association, and the Commercial Internet eXchange.

CDT, which filed an earlier friend of the court brief in April on First
Amendment grounds with a broad group of publishers and nonprofit groups,
applauds this industry effort.  "This industry brief underscores the
crippling effect that the French court ruling would have on the Internet and
electronic commerce.  Countries should not be able to haul foreign Internet
users into their courts simply for publishing a Web site alone," said Alan
Davidson, Associate Director of CDT.

The next hearing in this case is scheduled for August 26.  A hearing on
Yahoo's motion for summary judgment is scheduled for September 24.

Background of the Yahoo! v. LICRA Case

Last year, a French court ruled that Yahoo in the US, by allowing its Web
site to be accessed from France, ran afoul of France's law criminalizing the
exhibition or sale of racist materials.  The court specifically directed
Yahoo to re-engineer its servers in the United States and elsewhere to
enable them to recognize French Internet Protocol addresses and block their
access to material that violated French hate speech laws.  It also required
Yahoo to ask users with "ambiguous" IP addresses to declare their
nationality when they arrive at Yahoo's home page or when they initiate a
search using the word "Nazi."

Yahoo! has filed a lawsuit in US court asking for a declaratory judgment
that the foreign verdict is unenforceable in the US.  Yahoo argued that US
courts should refuse to enforce the French judgment because it contravenes
fundamental US policy, including, the strong protection of free speech
offered by the First Amendment.  Yahoo pointed out that freedom of
expression is recognized not only in the United States as a fundamental
constitutional right, but also under international law.

CDT is following the case closely.  In April, CDT filed a "friend of the
court" brief in support of Yahoo, joined by the American Association of
Publishers, the Freedom to Read Foundation, the ACLU, Human Rights Watch,
People for the American Way, the Society of Professional Journalists, and
others, arguing that holding Web publishers in one country liable for simply
publishing material that may be considered inappropriate when viewed by
citizens of another country would chill free expression and commerce on the
Internet.

In June, federal court in California in June denied a motion to dismiss
Yahoo's complaint.  The decision opened the way for the US court to take up
the merits of Yahoo's claim that the French court exceeded its jurisdiction.
The US court's opinion indicated that those who seek to use the foreign
courts to control US-based Web sites will face legal challenges to
enforcement of those judgments.

For more information, see the CDT policy post Vol. 7, No. 6 on this subject
at http://www.cdt.org/publications/pp_7.06.shtml.




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