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Censorship Your Rights Online

France: Criminal Charges Against Yahoo's Ex-CEO 56

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?"
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France: Criminal Charges Against Yahoo's Ex-CEO

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  • the chances of him being extradited for something like this are pretty slim, I'd expect. So he can't go to France or any of its territories from now on, big deal.
    • Not only this. He also won't be able to french kiss. And forget french fries.
  • Freedom of speech? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by tfurrows ( 541222 )
    Isn't supression of this sort akin to the supression the Nazis encouraged?

    Also, though the Nazi movement is an embarrasing (to say the absolute least) stain on the history of mankind, is not not nonetheless a piece of our history.

    I would hate to have our children forget about the horrors the Nazis caused, and censorship of this kind seems to be aimed at that.
  • by DeLabarre ( 236800 ) on Tuesday February 26, 2002 @08:09PM (#3074754)
    When Koogle vowed to vigorously defend himself in court, France immediately surrendered.
  • So if some random person runs into a store in france and stick some nazi stuff with a price tag on the shelf, the gov can punish the store?

    After all, they were selling it, right? Even if they didn't put it there, and they would take it down if they knew about it. They're still selling it.

    Dumb.
    • Correct, they do that.
      Some books are forbidden to sale in France, most notably 2 books from famous french author Louis-Ferdinand Céline ("Bagatelle pour un massacre" et "Les beaux draps"), written in 1937 and 1941.
      Those few who own a copy of these can only keep them locked in their house.
  • Do they feel they need to prove a point. This is almost as childish as claiming ownership of hyperlinks, and trying to sue based on it.

    I think there's something wrong with those Europeans.
  • Duh! (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Is it just me or do the lines between national and international law seem to be blurring?

    Passport: World ID

    UN: One World Government

    Bill Gates: Anti-Christ

    ~~~

  • The Nazi regime was horrible, but it is far more more dangerous to try to 'ignore' it. Those who are committed to forgetting history are bound to repeat it. Don't follow the path of ignorance.
  • by Deanasc ( 201050 ) on Tuesday February 26, 2002 @08:57PM (#3075004) Homepage Journal
    There should be an international courthouse in Antartica. All international cases must be tried there. That would stop all these frivolous lawsuits. After all, who would bother to file a lawsuit there except the truly grieved.
  • Three French Jewish and anti-Semitism groups pressed for the criminal charges in October. (emphasis added)

    Okay... So the French Nazis are upset over lost business?
  • by andaru ( 535590 ) <andaru2@onebox.com> on Tuesday February 26, 2002 @09:05PM (#3075047) Homepage
    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.

  • Well, in that case France should charge a lot of the junk store owners in Toronto. In particular those on Church St.

    I have seen plenty of Nazi war decorations (or medals, whatever they're called) for sale in those stores. And those were the cheap ones, which about a third of the Reich Army got just for fighting in the war.

    And I'm sure the Nazi memorabilia is big business throughout the world. I'm not into it, so I don't know for sure, but it's a safe bet.

    Going after the CEO of Yahoo for this is ridiculous. I guess there's a judge in France whith too much time on his hands.
  • The French government is acting very much like a Nazi regime. Or worse. It makes me think that these people actually picked this up from the German invaders during WW2 and passed the concepts on down to their children, and so on.

    When the French citizen clicks on the Yahoo.COM site, they know they are going to the USA. This is the electronic online age equivalent to traveling, including overseas.

    <img src="frenchflagwithswastica.jpg">

  • Does anyone else think that com.com is the lamest domain name possible?
  • There seems to be a common misconception that it's the French government that wants Yahoo down. This seems to be wrong.
    The plaintiff seems to be an org call the "Jewish Community of France". I've not managed to check if they even have the French nationality at all. Most French people I know do not agree at all with the lawsuit.

THEGODDESSOFTHENETHASTWISTINGFINGERSANDHERVOICEISLIKEAJAVELININTHENIGHTDUDE

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