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From
Wire Reports
April 12 — A French anti-racism group has filed a lawsuit against
Yahoo!, claiming the Internet giant hosts illegal auctions of Nazi-related
paraphernalia.
France has strict laws against selling or
displaying anything that incites racism. Sales of Nazi artifacts are
against the law.
The International League Against Racism and
Anti-Semitism (LICRA), which called in February for a boycott of Yahoo!
sites for the same reason, said on Tuesday it was seeking an injunction in
a Paris court to force the California-based company to stop the sales in
France.
A
Global Problem
“In the United States [these auctions] might not be illegal, but as soon
as you cross the French border, it’s absolutely illegal,” said Marc
Knobel, a researcher for LICRA.
LICRA is asking Yahoo! to make all such auctions
inaccessible to Web surfers in France and its territories like Martinique
and French Guyana, Knobel said. It has asked a French judge to fine the
California-based company $96,000 for each day it does not comply.
Knobel said LICRA may consider similar lawsuits
in other countries where Nazi-related items are banned.
“This sale of symbols of the greatest ever
crime against humanity trivializes Nazism in the extreme,” LICRA said.
The group did not say how access to a worldwide
Web site could be blocked in France only.
A
Love-Hate Relationship
A spokeswoman for the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company said it does not
comment on pending litigation. The lawsuit is due to be heard by a Paris
court on May 15.
A Yahoo.com auction site puts hundreds of Nazi or
neo-Nazi, or Ku Klux Klan objects up for auction each day, including
films, swastikas, uniforms, daggers, photos and medals.
While no such items are for sale on Yahoo!’s
French site, Knobel said there are currently over 1,000 Nazi-related
items, including pictures, coins and flags, on sale at an auction site
that is accessible in France.
Yahoo! came under fire in February from another
anti-racism group, the Anti-Defamation League, which accused the Web
service provider of hosting dozens of sites that promoted messages from
racist hate groups including neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan.
Last September, Yahoo! was commended in front of
a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee for combating racism on the Internet by
banishing more than 70 sites from its network whose hosts were hate
groups. 
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