The potential ground-breaking lawsuit France vs. Yahoo! will soldier on in the American justice system for an undetermined period of time. After the French courts imposed a 15 million dollar fine on Yahoo! for not taking down Nazi paraphernalia from a US-based auction site, which can be accessed in France, Yahoo! asked the US courts to rule that France has no jurisdiction over American on-line businesses.
The US courts refused to declare Yahoo! beyond the reach of the French law, although Yahoo! does business as an American company, using an American-based site. Although the US courts did not side with the French ones, they still refuse to take under the shield of the American law those American on-line businesses that sell products to people found on foreign soil. This is the old story of extraterritorial rights (i.e., Shanghai in the 1930s), but in reverse. Between the two World Wars foreign business were safe from local prosecution while doing business on foreign soil, nowadays they are liable to lawsuits even when they do business from their own country. It is yet another of the dark aspects of the globalization process.
The raw news: Court Dismisses Yahoo Free Speech Suit – Yahoo! News
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed a federal lawsuit brought by Yahoo in California challenging the fine levied five years ago for running an auction site in which French users could buy and sell the memorabilia banned in France.Yahoo asked the U.S. court to rule that the judgment could not be collected in the United States because it violated the company’s free speech rights.
In a 99-page decision, the court left open the central question of whether U.S.-based Internet service providers are liable for damages in foreign courts for displaying content that is unlawful overseas but protected in the United States.
The court said it was unlikely the French would ever enforce the judgment and doubted Yahoo’s free speech rights under U.S. law were violated.