Despite recent criticism on several fronts, Yahoo Australia has defended its sister sites, fighting back on issues relating to the selling of Nazi memorabilia on auctions sites and illegal activities in chat rooms.
In response to the buying and selling of Nazi memorabilia on auction sites in countries where it is illegal, a French court has ordered US Internet giant Yahoo! to block French users from visiting such Web sites.
However, Yahoo Australia Product Director Alan Jones has fought back at the French court ruling, declaring it is "not Yahoo's role to enforce laws".
As a content host, Yahoo Australia is bound by local legislation to remove content from its Web site considered illegal. However, according to Internet Industry Association Executive Director Peter Coroneos, it is an entirely different matter to apply this to another jurisdiction.
Coroneos told ZDNet that the French court ruling is "a serious one" in that it sets a precedent for courts in other countries to enforce their laws outside their own jurisdiction.
"A part from the impossibility to do that, it just demonstrates the lack of appreciation of the global nature of the Internet," Coroneos said.
According to the Internet Service Providers Association in France, users can be prosecuted under French legislation for the selling of Nazi memorabilia in France.
"If someone is publicly browsing Nazi memorabilia in a cybercafe, the US legislation will not protect him, he will be sued, full stop," EuroISPA President Jean-Christophe Le Toquin told ZDNet.
However, Le Toquin does not agree with the French court ruling, stating that a private company can't control citizens, even if ordered by a judge.
"Only a law can ask companies to control their subscribers," he said.
"We fight on a day-to-day basis illegal content such as incitement to racial hatred, so yes we share the concerns of French people regarding incitement to racial hatred. And so does Yahoo France, and so would Yahoo! Inc, if there was not the US legislation," Le Toquin told ZDNet.
Coroneos believes the only way to control Internet content is educating Internet users and employing filtering software through ISPs that limits access to gambling, hate and pornography sites.
"Given the nature of the medium, there are far better ways of addressing the issue than courts to presume it can block it to end users.
"It can't work. The whole point about the Internet is that it challenges traditional control structures within society, including government and courts of law, and illustrates why industry co-operation is fundamental to protecting end users," Coroneous said.
Furthermore, despite a crack down on paedophile activity in Yahoo chatrooms in the United Kingdom in recent weeks - reported by ZDNet UK - Yahoo Australia told ZDNet that it isn't planning to step up the monitoring of illegal activity in Australian chat rooms.
Jones claims the service already has a number of sheriffs assigned to monitor illegal activity in chat rooms and believes the authorities here are satisfied with the set up.
However, he added that it is impossible to monitor private chat rooms where such activity can occur.
"I couldn't speculate on the volume of that kind of activity that occurs in Australia, there have been incidents," he said.
