Yahoo! will not comply with a French court ruling that it block French users from accessing Nazi memorabilia on its site. The U.S.-based company has removed “hate-related” items from its site, but maintains that the French court does not have jurisdiction over the company, according to wire service reports.
In the original decision, Judge Jean-Jacques Gomez ruled that Yahoo! must install a filtering system to block French users from Nazi and hate-related material by Feb. 24. Yahoo! filed a counter-suit in California claiming that a French court has no right to impose its laws on an American company as well as that such a filtering system is technologically impossible, the reports said.
While the Nov. 20 decision in the French court also makes Yahoo! liable for fines up to $14,000 a day, the issue of the filtering system may be considered moot since the material that is supposed to be filtered is no longer allowed on the site. The removal has satisfied at least one of the original plaintiffs in the case, according to the reports.
However, the company claims the decision was not related to the judge’s order, but rather made because the items are offensive.
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