Last month a Paris court found that Yahoo! had broken a French
law that makes it illegal in France to sell or display anything
that incites racism. The site which was the subject of the case
sells Nazi, neo-Nazi and Ku Klux Klan memorabilia to on-line
bidders, including films, swastikas, daggers, uniforms, photos and
medals.
The portal was given two months to block the site from internet
users in France.
Yang told the French publication Liberation, “We are not going
to change the content of our sites in the United States because
someone in France is asking us to do so.” He continued, “This
French court wants to impose a judgement in a jurisdiction within
which it does not have any control… To ask us to filter the access
to our content according to the nationality of the net surfers is
very naïve.”
The case us the first time a French court has issued such an
order on a foreign company. Yang said that his mind will not be
changed without an order from a US court. Yahoo! is expected to
report back to the Paris court on 24th July.
