Yahoo! Not Bound by French Court Ruling

Klerck writes "Luckily, a US federal judge has ruled that Yahoo! is not bound by the French ruling that demanded that all Nazi memorabilia be removed from its auction site. It's a nice surprise to have a sensible ruling come out of a federal court in times like these."

Irrelevant

[Johnny5000]

Well, the French law only said they cant sell that stuff from French yahoo servers. It only applies to France.

And since this is US law, it's only going to apply to the US.

Neither country has any say in what the other's laws are.

-J5K

Re:Where was the EFF foundation?

[truesaer]

EFF didn't get involved in the Yahoo case because Yahoo has about 5 million lawyers who can handle it just fine. They're busy defending Prof. Felten, who doesn't have billions of dollars and a gigantic company to throw his weight around with.

Nothing to see here, move along....

Re:Irrelevant

[Binestar]

Above is another example of someone who doesn't read the article in hopes of getting the elusive first post.

The article specifically states the the French court ordered Yahoo! to remove all the auctions from all the sites that were *REACHABLE* by french citizens. This means even servers hosted in other countries. The United States has effectively told Yahoo! that the French courts order violates the first amendment and therefore is not enforcable.

So the servers from Yahoo! hosted in France are still subject to the ruling from the French courts, the servers hosted in the United States are not.

Re:Europes (France) point of view :

[Fnkmaster]

Are you just talking out of your ass? The whole point is that Yahoo complied LONG LONG ago with any French site they have (presumably www.yahoo.fr or something along those lines). The whole point is that the moronic French judiciary wants to apply French law to www.yahoo.com and other Yahoo owned sites that are located ANYWHERE as long as they are accessible by French citizens. As mentioned elsewhere, that is not a reasonable definition of legality, and if every site had to comply with the laws of every country just because it was accessible from said countries, there would be nothing left of the web, or it would be entirely segmented by geographical location to prevent violating laws somewhere.

So basically, the French can blow it out there asses or try to sue Yahoo interests in France, but that will likely lead to Yahoo AND every other significant internet entity ceasing to do business in France, and I think that would be fine. It would teach the whiny French a lesson about the real world.

Re:Freedom of speech != sayin' anything

[CDWert]

Actually yes , you could do just that, godhelp you if you did, I could see it now , every NY'er would be hurling flowerpots at you from 40 stories but yeah, you could.and like the KKK jerkoffs demonstrating at black rally's it would be protected, or the KKK passing out literature around schools , which has been done, and subsequently upheld.

>The freedom of speech does not mean that >everybody has the right to say everything:

Wrong, it does mean just that, as long as youre not preaching violence as a course of action, yes yes it does.

I'd like to focus on a point.

[Anonymous Coward]

The French court did *not* rule anything on Yahoo US.

The French court ruled about Yahoo France, a *French* company. Yes, it is owned by a US corporation, but so what ?
In regards to the law, Yahoo France is a French company, registred at la Chambre des Commerces. So it must abid to French law.
You might discuss that law, I do not agree with it either.

But that does not change one point : good or bad, a *French* company must abid to it. The court never targeted Yahoo US.

Please bear that in mind. French courts do NOT target US stuff. They target French stuff. So I don't see why a US judge has anything to say to a French rule about a French company.
The fact that the French company is owed by a US corporation is irrevelant and void.

I hurts some

[Scholsie]

I live in France, let me show you round... See that old guy over there ? His father was executed by the Gestapo... That old woman over there? She was raped by several SS when she was 16.. See that sign to 'Oradour-Sur-Glane', you should go and see that village, one day the SS cam calling and killed everybody, they say 640+ men, women and children died. Now imagine how some people who live here feel when they see Nazi sympathisers (and it's virtually always sympathisers that buy this stuff, which is why there is a law against selling it) parading swastikas, deaths head badges etc. Get the point?

Re:I'd like to focus on a point.

[Dredd13]

No, actually, the French Court didn't even go after Yahoo France, the french subsidiary, because everything under the control of Yahoo France was in compliance with .FR laws, and always had been. Nazi memorabilia had never BEEN available on the French site.

They did, in fact, file suit against Yahoo!,Inc., a Delaware Corporation based in (then) Santa Clara, CA (now Sunnyvale), charging that because the US Auctions site "reached" France, it was bound by French law.

Know of what you speak before you speak it.