Yahoo is set to present its case on Thursday to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, to determine whether a French court has the right of censorship over content originating from the United States.About five years ago, anti-hate groups in France successfully sued Yahoo over Nazi paraphernalia that was posted on its U.S. website. The French Court ordered Yahoo to block sales of such items and not make them available to citizens of France.
Yahoo did not take the verdict lightly. They filed a lawsuit in a U.S. District Court in San Jose, California, on the basis that since the content was hosted by its U.S. based servers, the French court had no jurisdiction. The U.S. court agreed with Yahoo, stating that the French court could not enforce its ruling in the United States, since it would violate the web site’s First Amendment rights.
