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Yahoo! Not Protected From French Anti-Nazi Laws
snoopsk writes "An appeals
court ruled that Yahoo is not protected from French legal attacks
due to Nazi-related items sold on Yahoo's auction site. Backed by the
ACLU, Yahoo
intends to defend its First Amendment rights should a French court
try to enforce French anti-hate laws. This case could have huge
implications for free speech online if the French courts are successful
in forcing Yahoo to remove this content.
"
"
If you RTFA, there's not much background info....Here's a link....
2 ,353264,00.html/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theissues/article/0,651
IANAE (European), but I have a question (Don't jump on my case, please)....
Why do most European countries insist on covering up any history of Hitler? Yes he was evil, yes he did bad things, but history is history, and not changeable......We in the US do not hide the Civil War, slavery, or even racism. Any insight would be appreciated...
-thewldisntenuff
My MythTV HowTo
Yahoo intends to defend its First Amendment rights should a French court try to enforce French anti-hate laws.
Well good luck on that one. Yahoo's lawyer should know better than that. There is no right of free speech in France. Matter of fact, there isn't any such concept pretty much anywhere else but in the US. As a side note, the first amendment is one of the US' greatest gems, that Americans should be proud of around the globe, and it makes me sad to see the current administration tread on it without anybody doing anything about it, but I digress...
In France, there is *SO* no concept of free speech that there are laws to prevent people from saying anything remotely bad about jews. For example, if your opinion is that jews control the banking system and you voice it, you can be prosecuted and sent to jail. Whether or not whatever you say is true, the act of saying it puts you in jeopardy in France.
Remember the Faurisson case? Pr. Faurisson was a revisionist. He thought gas chambers didn't exist and said so. Well, he was prosecuted for some "hate speech" crime or something. If my memory serves me right, I seem to recall Noam Chomsky giving a speech in France about how he thought Faurisson was a crackpot but he should be allowed to expose his nutcase theories freely, and he himself was threatened by a French judge to be careful not to cross the line if he wanted to avoid trouble himself.
So, Yahoo really should know better than provoke the French judicial system. They're positively and admitedly anti free-speech, and wanting to assert "firste amendement" rights in France is as pointless as trying to squelch the KKK in the America.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
but perhaps that had something to do with oil for food
Or the billions in loans the French made to Hussein's government, which they'll probably never see paid back now.
Nah, those French stood up to the U.S. for 'enlightened' reasons, I'm sure. Money had nothing to do with it.
Max
My god carries a hammer. Your god died nailed to a tree. Any questions?
And what if those t-shirts were being used to incite a whole new generation of Osamas to finish what he started? Wouldn't that upset you just a little?
The entire concept behind 'free speech' is that you defend the right even if - especially if - you happen to disagree with that speech. But since you're a Brit in LA, as you said, I don't expect you to grasp that concept as easily as an American would.
Max
My god carries a hammer. Your god died nailed to a tree. Any questions?
Why the French even care. With the exception of a handfull of brave resistance fighters, France seemed "to welcome their new Nazi overlords". Until the allies invaded, the trains ran, the power was on, and everyone was having a fine time drinking wine and playing with the fraulines. Other countries suffered brutally from the Nazis and we don't hear them complaining about stuff on Yahoo or ebay.
So what's up with the French? Some repressed guilt about their complacency?
"Eve of Destruction", it's not just for old hippies anymore...
I thought that was an American tradition.
When you look at the state of the world, how can you not become a radical, liberal anarchist?
well nevermind history. anti-nazi = french?
oh right, those were german railcars used to haul the jews out of france to places like auschwitz, not french. and those recent desecrations of jewish cemetaries in france? why, that was only the youth having a fun, no hatred involved.
you would think with all those north africans milling about they could come up with something better than this? nothing against algeria, morocco, libya, and tunisia, except for their propensity to birth train bombers.
if yahoo is the kettle, then france is the pot. for me to poop on!
i don't hate the french, dislike is a better word. well, just the men. french women are yummy. mmm...
Francophobe
Wouldn't that mean I'm afraid of the french? Why would anyone be afraid of the french?
Everyone else here is floating their own ideas for yahoo, with the same expectation- none- that yahoo brass is paying attention.
Pointless yapping is the point of slashdot. So comment with that in mind, jerky.
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms should be the name of a store, not a government agency.
And Americains would survive quite well if people could gamble online legally, or actually see a nipple on TV once in a while instead of just murders, violence, and gore.
Then again, maybe not, you are right, French people are not children and would fare much better than the Americains in this example. ooops.
Who gives a damn about the fuckin' Euro perception of America? Especially the French? And the French are sisys. yes, they have some good special ops and such, but put them in a big slugfest with another army of any size at all and my dollar is on the other guy. We all know the popular Google-bomb of "french military victories." The French as well as, IMHO, most other European countries (not to be confused with individual citizens which can be as strong as any other man on the planet) are notorious for being gun shy, especially in today's modern age. Germans.. had their asses handed to them in both World Wars (not to say that the Nazi's couldn't have won - Hitler, you meddeling fool!).. French.. see above.. Spanish.. wasn't their last war a civil war, one which was won with German assistance? Italians go to war? No way!
now, Norway and Swedeen seem to have a pretty good defense force but couldnt handle a full-scale war, IMO. America doesn't like to put up with shit. We don't withdraw troops from Iraq 'cause a few of our citizens were killed by a car bomb. We have peoples' heads chopped off and we just get pissed.
man.. where was I going wiht this incessant rant?!
What is your penile percentile?