France: Criminal Charges Against Yahoo's Ex-CEO

Hank Reardon writes: "According to this C|NET article, former Yahoo CEO Timothy Koogle is being charged criminally for allowing the sale of various Nazi memorabilia on Yahoo's auctions pages. Ther article notes that the charges were filed in regardless of the offending items being removed from the French Yahoo! pages. Is it just me or do the lines between national and international law seem to be blurring?"

Comments

Dmitry Sklyarov double standard

[andaru]

The judge ruled that French laws don't apply to U.S. businesses, but it obviously doesn't work the other way around, as in the case of Dmitry Sklyarov.

They should have waited to file charges until Timothy Koogle was vacationing on the French Riviera, rather than having to try to extradite him.

I guess it's time to brush up on your foreign law, since we will all have to start obeying the laws of every other country in the world, including those that are mutually exclusive.

Re:Dmitry Sklyarov double standard

[Skapare]

Free Speech is illegal in China. Death penalty may be the result. If you speak bad about the Chinese government, no matter what country you are in, they might demand your extradition to China to stand trial and face the firing squad. This is what can happen if we set any precedent to allow foreign countries to dictate what is done beyond their own national territory. Unfortunately both the United States (Sklyarov) and France (Koogle) are setting just such precedents. And this is very serious business. Citizens of these countries need to inform their government representatives of the grave risk involved in such a precedent exposing them to the extraditions of other countries for what is perfectly legal at home.