A French judge launched hearings Tuesday into whether Internet service providers should censor portals accessible on their networks to keep French citizens from viewing links to neo-Nazi Web sites.
Jean-Jacques Gomez, who last year made headlines with his controversial ruling that Yahoo must block French citizens' access to its US-based auction site featuring Nazi memorabilia, is expected to make a ruling in the coming months.
The case pits the companies that provide Web access against those concerned with Web content, and is seen as another test of evolving rules governing the Internet, national jurisdiction, free speech and online commerce.
Gomez will rule whether companies trading in France, such as Wanadoo, Noos and Freesurf, can be made to censor the portals to which they provide access. He will also decide if the censorship would be technically possible.
French law prohibits the exhibit or sale of objects that incite racial hatred.
The hearing was launched after six anti-racism and Jewish groups demanded service providers prevent access to a portal which they say provides links to more than 300 sites posted by Nazi apologists, white supremacists and other racist groups.
The portal in question -- Front14.org -- is run by SkyNetWeb, a company that comes under US law and, unlike Yahoo, has no French unit to take to court in France.
Two expert witnesses told the hearing Tuesday that electronic "filters" had been developed to block access to portals but were not 100 percent effective.
A further session is scheduled for next week, with lawyers representing Internet companies and anti-racist groups due to make their summary arguments September 18. In the United States, a judge is to hear Yahoo's challenge to Gomez's ruling last year in a move that effectively sets the stage for a legal showdown over whether foreign courts can be used to influence US publishers and US law.
A date for the hearing to start has not yet been set.
