Nazi Items To Be Thrown Off Yahoo!

Yahoo! Inc. will stop carrying online auctions of Nazi artifacts and other hate-related materials.

The announcement follows complaints from Yahoo! users and a legal battle with the government of France, where a court ruled in November that Yahoo! should block anyone in France from being able to bid on Nazi items.

One month after the French ruling, the second-highest court in Germany handed down a ruling similar to the one in France, although not involving Yahoo!. According to the Center for Democracy & Technology, which monitors free speech issues on the Web, the German court ruled that an Australian Web site owner - whose site questioning the facts of the Holocaust is illegal in Germany but not in Australia - could be jailed for violating German law.

Although Yahoo! has insisted it cannot limit access to certain geographic regions, as the French court ordered, Yahoo! may effectively comply by blocking the items from everyone.

CBS News Correspondent Elaine Cobbe reports the Jewish students' union in France, which has fought the auction of Nazi items, is welcoming the Yahoo! decision.

The new guidelines will also apply to the site's classified listings and its e-commerce partners. Yahoo! search directories, chat rooms and other areas are not affected.

Brian Fitzgerald, senior auction producer at Yahoo!, says the French court order played no role in the new policy, other than to raise awareness internally and speed the decision.

"We decided we don't necessarily want to profit from items that promote hatred or glorify hatred and violence," explains Fitzgerald.

Online auction consultant Mark Gambale, of the Internet research firm Gómez Advisors, questions the timing of the Yahoo! announcement.

"In a way, it's a pre-emptive strike in making sure this (the French ruling) doesn't become a serious issue," says Gambale. "International law has a unique way of evolving. Yahoo! is trying to clean its own house here."

Fitzgerald said that while some users support the trade of such items on free speech grounds, the majority of comments received by Yahoo! were in opposition.

When the new policy takes effect, Yahoo! will also begin screening items before they are listed. Computer software will reject any item that appears to violate the site's policies. Users who believe their items were improperly rejected will be able to appeal and have the decision reviewed by employees at Yahoo!.

Auction sites have typically rejected items only after they are posted.

Beginning next Wednesday, Yahoo! will also charge sellers 20 cents to $2.25 to list an item, although it will not collect a commission on sales. Other auction sites, including eBay and Amazon.com, already charge for both.

The three changes, Fitzgerald said, are part of an overall effort to improve quality of listings - th ban and the software to screen out objectionable material, the fee to screen out junk items.

The newly banned items at Yahoo include medals, weapons, uniforms, official documents and other items that carry swastikas or other symbols associated with hate groups. They join a banned list that now includes cigarettes, live animals and used underwear.

Jupiter Research analyst Andrew Ari Clibanoff said Yahoo faces competitive pressures, in addition to its legal troubles. Noting that eBay already has a limited ban, Clibanoff said he was surprised Yahoo! even took this long.

The leading online auction site, eBay, bans hate materials, although some restrictions apply only in Germany, France, Austria and Italy - countries where such items are illegal. Sellers may not ship such items there, and buyers from those countries may not bid on them.

In April, two French groups sued Yahoo under its old policies, accusing the U.S. company of violating French law barring the display or sale of racist material.

A French judge ruled in November that Yahoo must prevent French users from auctions of such items, or face $13,000 a day in fines. On Dec. 21, the company asked a U.S. court to block the order, saying France doesn't have jurisdiction.

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