FC: Yahoo says "Non!" to French demand to yank racist auctions

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

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http://news.excite.com/news/r/000616/08/france-usa-yahoo

   PARIS (Reuters) - The co-founder of Yahoo! Inc., Jerry
   Yang, has rejected a French court order to stop Web
   surfers in France gaining access to sales of Nazi
   memorabilia which appear on one of the Web sites it
   hosts.

   "We are not going to change the content of our sites in
   the United States just because someone in France is
   asking us to do so," Yang told French daily Liberation in
   an interview published Friday.

[...]

   Yang said he was not going to take any steps.

   "Asking us to filter access to our sites according to the
   nationality of Web surfers is very naive," he said.

   Lawyers representing Yahoo had told the court that it
   was not technically possible for the company to scan the
   content of all the sites carried on its service.

   "We have a lot of respect for national sovereignty, we
   also have a lot of respect for the Internet," Yang said. He
   said Yahoo! did not control the Internet.

[...]

   The suit was started by the International League against
   Racism and Anti-Semitism and the Union of French
   Jewish Students. 

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