Yahoo has problem with the Nazis

YAHOO'S BID to stop two French groups stopping it selling neo-nazi paraphernalia are having a job convincing the US court system to intervene.

The US Court of Appeals ruled that a US District Court judge lacked the authority to hear a case that could affect two French groups trying to block the sale of Nazi-related items on Yahoo's auction site.

The French Union of Jewish Students and the International Anti-Racism and Anti-Semitism League sued Yahoo in 2000 and won a French court order requiring the company to block Internet users in France from auctions selling Nazi gear.

Yahoo said that it stripped Nazi memorabilia - including flags emblazoned with swastikas and excerpts from Hitler's "Mein Kampf" - from its French subsidiary, yahoo.fr.

However it kept up the sales in the US where they are legal. It now wants the US legal system to protect it from those pesky Frenchies.

Yahoo filed a lawsuit in San Jose in 2002, asking the US District Court there to rule that the French order was invalid because it violated the First Amendment of the US Constitution.

While Judge Jeremy Fogel decided that he had jurisdiction over French defendants, there was an outside chance he thought they were talking about Paris in Texas or Paris Hilton.

However the appeal court remembered that the US didn't actually have control of the French and rescinded the order.

The appeal panel pointed out that Yahoo could not expect both to benefit from the fact that its content may be viewed around the world and to be shielded from the resulting costs.

Yahoo said that not much has changed, but one has to wonder why it just doesn't pull the stuff. µ