In January, Yahoo! announced it would ban auctions
of Nazi artifacts and other items associated with groups which 'promote or
glorify hatred and violence' on its U.S. site.
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Another legal volley was fired Thursday in the international
battle over Yahoo! auctions of Nazi memorabilia. The
France-based International League Against Racism
and Anti-Semitism (LICRA) has filed a motion to dismiss the
federal lawsuit that Yahoo! filed in a U.S. court in December contesting
a French court's order.
After a French judge ordered Yahoo! in November to
find a way to bar French residents from accessing
Web-based auctions of Nazi artifacts in a case
brought by LICRA, Yahoo! turned around and sued
LICRA in the U.S. District Court in San Jose,
California.
In the U.S. case, Yahoo! is asking
the judge to declare that
the French court has
no jurisdiction
over Yahoo's operations, and that the French
court's order violates rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.
In making its motion to dismiss the U.S. case, LICRA argued that likewise, the U.S.
court system has no jurisdiction over it.
"LICRA has absolutely no contacts with the United States," Katz said. "It is
a voluntary organization in France that opposes racism and anti-Semitism. I think
that there is virtually no chance that the
court will find that [it] has jurisdiction over LICRA in San
Jose, California."
Who Governs the Web?
Yahoo! manager of international public relations Scott Morris told
the E-Commerce Times that Yahoo! has no choice but to pursue the
U.S. case contesting which country's laws govern the Internet.
"We have to, for the sake of the industry," Morris said. "Not
just for Yahoo!, for everyone that has business on the Internet."
In January, Yahoo! announced it would
ban auctions of Nazi artifacts and other
items "that are associated with groups which promote or glorify hatred and violence" on its
U.S. site. However, the company has not agreed to abide in particular
by the French court's order.
At the time, Yahoo! Auctions senior producer Brian Fitzgerald
told the E-Commerce Times that the company had been discussing
the change even before the French suit against Yahoo! was filed.
French Bar
The dispute over Nazi memorabilia auctions at Yahoo! began
in April when LICRA, the Movement Against Racism (MRAP) and
the Union of French Law Students (UEFJ) sued Yahoo!, charging
the company with illegally hosting auctions that amounted to
a "banalizing of Nazism."
Selling or displaying items that promote racism is illegal
in France. While Nazi items are not offered on Yahoo's French
auction site, French users are able to access the company's U.S. auction site.
In November, a French court told Yahoo! that it had 90 days to
block French residents from viewing its Nazi memorabilia auctions,
or it would face fines of US$13,000 each day.
The French court's ruling reaffirmed a May decision that had been
delayed while a panel of experts determined whether it would be
technologically feasible to bar French users from the auctions.
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