The study reflects on the Internet ethical issues based upon the Yahoo! Inc. international lawsuit case, the legal confrontation occurring between Yahoo! U.S. and French anti-hate activists – the protests against the sales of Nazi items on Yahoo! Inc. American auction sites. The case was firstly raised in August 1999 when several online booksellers were required to stop their selling of Hitler’s memoir Mein Kampf to German customers, which was considered to encourage hate philosophy. One of the online auctioneers, Yahoo! Inc., stood on that the auction of Nazi items was legal in the U.S. and refused to cease its auctions. The issue of Internet hate was therefore rapidly debated around the world, particularly intensely debated in France. Until the early spring of 2000, Yahoo! France was sued by French activist groups. The plaintiffs demanded that Yahoo! Inc. was fined €100,000 ($90,000) for the continued daily sales of Nazi objects in addition to removing Nazi objects from Yahoo! France auction site. The French court stood on, in moral and ethical perspective, that the company was guilty, and ordered the company to block access by French users to the relevant parts of its American site. Yahoo! Inc. refused to accept the French court’s ruling and turned to seek protection in the American court against the right of a non-American court to impose penalties on an American company. By reviewing the company’s business practices, the study sought to analyze from the legal, technical, social and moral, managerial perspectives, and all different issues involved in the case. Several personal views drawn from the lessons of the case are provided as a conclusion.
