FC: U.S. experts testify in French lawsuit against Yahoo

[Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>]

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Background on case:
http://www.politechbot.com/p-01232.html
http://www.politechbot.com/p-01189.html
********

>From: "Kirin Kalia" <kirin@siliconalleyreporter.com>
>To: "Kirin Kalia" <kirin@siliconalleyreporter.com>, <declan@well.com>
>Subject: WSJ.com: Experts Testify Before French Court Hearing Yahoo! Case
>Date: Tue, 7 Nov 2000 13:53:47 +0100
>X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2615.200
>
>declan, thought this might be something for the politech list.
>best, kirin
>
>
>
>November 6, 2000
>
>Personalized E-Mail
>
>
>
>Experts Testify Before French Court Hearing Yahoo! Case
>
>
>
>
>Dow Jones Newswires
>
>PARIS (AP)--In the latest step in a legal battle over racism in 
>cyberspace, a team of Internet experts told a judge Monday that it was 
>possible to block some French Web surfers from U.S. giant Yahoo!'s (YHOO) 
>auction site, though one specialist expressed concern about Net freedom.
>
>The trans-Atlantic case began nearly seven months ago, when two 
>Paris-based anti-racism groups sued Santa Clara, Calif.-based Yahoo!, 
>angry that French people had access to more than 1,000 objects of Nazi 
>memorabilia on the site at auctions.yahoo.com.
>
>The groups, the Union of Jewish Students and the Licra anti-racism 
>organization, argued that Yahoo! was breaking the law in France, where it 
>is illegal to sell or display objects that promote racism.
>
>A Paris judge ordered Yahoo! to pay fines to the two groups, and later 
>asked a team of experts to search for ways to filter French users from the 
>site and all other sites deemed racist.
>
>Yahoo!'s lawyers have argued that it would be impossible to keep French 
>people off the site, as cyberspace has no borders. The company is also 
>worried the case could set a global precedent that would leave Web sites 
>vulnerable to legal attacks from abroad.
>
>In Paris on Monday, three technology experts said the Yahoo! site could 
>indeed be partially controlled -but at least one of the specialists 
>expressed caution about setting such a precedent.
>
>After months of research, French expert Francois Wallon and Vinton Cerf of 
>the U.S. testified that it would be possible to detect 70% of Web surfers 
>who use an easily identifiable French Internet service provider to access 
>the auction site. Britain's Ben Laurie was also on the team but was unable 
>to attend the hearing.
...




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