When it comes to dealing with Nazi lovers, Meg Whitman is no Jerry Yang. Here's the background. At first, eBay held out. It wasn't long, though, before eBay crumpled like a second-hand deck of cards. To be sure, this was one hot potato, and nobody at eBay had the fortitude or the patience to deal with it.
French law makes it illegal to exhibit or sell objects that carry racist overtones.
And in making his ruling the judge said these objects constitute an offense against the collective memory of the company. At worst, I suppose a litigator might argue that the company's technology makes it a facilitator for individuals. The French court is essentially demanding that the service filter access to all its sites, scanning offerings from all the pages it carries. Even if it were possible and the French court gets its way, think about the precedent it would establish and how that might affect free expression, not to mention the future development of e-commerce, on the Internet. Today it might be France.