In a case that held broad civil liberties implications for whether one government could regulate or censor Internet content created or emanating from another country’s jurisdiction, former Yahoo CEO Timothy Koogle is off the hook in France over Nazi memorabilia auctions on Yahoo’s main U.S. site - accessible by French surfers.
A French criminal court found Koogle neither condoned nor praised Adolf Hitler, the Third Reich, or their crimes, when the memorabilia turned up on Yahoo auctions based in the U.S. but never listed on French-based versions of the Internet giant.
French law bans showing or selling objects containing racist messages or overtones. The Yahoo auctions came under fire after three French-based Jewish and anti-Semitism groups complained formally in October 2001, Reuters said.
Yahoo now bans the sale of most Nazi memorabilia, said Reuters, with current auctions limited only to Third Reich postage stamps, transportation tokens, and other coins.
Reuters said Koogle - who resigned his position in 2001 - could have gone to jail for up to five years and paid a $49,000 fine if convicted. A U.S. federal judge ruled earlier that Yahoo wasn’t bound to bend its non-French sites to French law, Reuters said.
