O'Melveny & Myers LLP Attorney, Robert Vanderet, Yahoo!'s Lead Attorney available for...

Business Editors/Legal Writers

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 11, 2001

US Court Rules It has Jurisdiction to Consider Yahoo!

Challenge to French Court Regarding Internet Access to Nazi Material

A United States District Court in San Jose, California has

ruled that it will consider Yahoo!'s challenge to an order by a French court that the U.S.-based Internet service provider alter its American servers so that French web-surfers can't access Nazi-related material on the Internet. The display of such material is illegal under French law.

Last year, a court in Paris ordered the American company to reconfigure its U.S.-based webservers so that French citizens could not view the offending material. It threatened to impose substantial fines on Yahoo! of 100,000 francs (about $13,300) for each day Yahoo! failed to comply with the order.

In December, Yahoo! filed suit in federal court in San Jose asking the court to declare that the French order is unenforceable in the United States, on the grounds that the order violates the First Amendment rights of Yahoo! and its American users, and that it conflicts with American law relieving Internet service providers of responsibility for content posted by others. The French organizations that had obtained the French court order asked the U.S. court to dismiss the suit on grounds that the American courts had no jurisdiction over them with respect to the matter.

In his June 7 ruling, U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel said that while "most people in the United States, including this Court, find the display and sale of Nazi propaganda and memorabilia profoundly offensive ...[a]s Yahoo! and others have pointed out, a content restriction imposed upon an Internet service provider by a foreign court just as easily could prohibit promotion of democracy, gender equality, a particular religion or other viewpoints which have strong support in the United States but are viewed as offensive or inappropriate elsewhere."

The Court will now proceed to decide the merits of Yahoo!'s challenge to the French court order. A ruling on that motion is expected in the next few months.

Yahoo!'s lead attorney, Robert Vanderet of O'Melveny & Myers LLP, called the ruling "a step towards freedom of speech on the Internet, the new town square for the world." He went on to say that the ruling should discourage others around the world who are engaged in efforts to censor content on American

Internet service providers in countries such as Italy, Germany, India and elsewhere.

O'Melveny & Myers maintains 13 offices around the world. The firm's expertise spans virtually every area of legal practice, including Entertainment and Media; Copyright, Trademark and Internet; Patent and Technology; Corporate, Trade and International Law; Labor and Employment; Litigation; White Collar; Real Estate, Environmental and Natural Resources; Tax; and Bankruptcy.