Yahoo! starts search for Nazi links

By Christina Okoli

THE Internet makes a mockery of time and space. It trespasses national boundaries with a blatant disregard for the law.

In a landmark ruling, a Paris court recently ordered Yahoo! to block French users from accessing Nazi memorabilia on its sites. The ruling was based on a French anti-racist law, which US-based company Yahoo! is accused of breaching every time a French Internet user accesses a Nazi memorabilia auction site via Yahoo!.

In response, Yahoo! has decided to self-regulate the auction of Nazi memorabilia. It has decided that it's easier to stop such products getting on to its sites, than it is to control who is viewing the sales.

Whilst this is a victory for anti-racist groups and individuals the world over, industry groups have expressed concern about the wider implications of the French ruling, and the possibility of copy-cat cases where national or regional governments will try to impose local laws on websites based outside their countries.

Online businesses are now lobbying regulators to try to limit the number of different national courts and laws that can claim jurisdiction over a website based elsewhere.

The French ruling has opened a can of worms that could eat away at other Internet companies that find themselves at the mercy of countless courts, in countries where they have no business interests. The implications of such a move are vast and could signal the end of the Internet's global proliferation.

So, is every websites now subject to every law, in every land Is this type of censorship even workable on the wide, wild world of the web and, most of all, is it welcome To vent your views visit The AnswerBank's message boards.