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Thursday, January 11, 2001 By David Radin
Whether they did it as a purely business decision or out of a sense of moral responsibility, it was the right move. Yahoo! has banned Nazi memorabilia from its auction Web site.
Several months ago, Yahoo! was ordered by a French judge to comply with France's anti-racism laws by blocking access by French citizens to any Nazi objects within the Yahoo! site. The concept was that Yahoo! was doing business in France, and in doing so, must comply with French law. Of course, Yahoo!, realizing that a judgment in France could lead to judgments in other countries, filed in the United States for "declaratory relief" from the French judgment, under the supposition that the French court did not have jurisdiction over Yahoo!, which is based in California. At stake, the company's right to offer merchandise throughout the world based on U.S. law -- vs. being hit with substantial fines such as the French one, which would have been $13,000 a day.
The decision by Yahoo! to go beyond the legal battle is a winning one in at least three ways. First, it's the right business decision. Removing the objectionable materials will probably not harm the company's sales dramatically, but will have a goodwill effect throughout the world, possibly attracting more users. Second, from a business standpoint, it is easier to implement restrictions worldwide, than to create business and technical processes that treat citizens of different countries differently in order to universally stay on the right side of the law. Third, it is the morally responsible thing to do.
Callers to my show disagree on how far the Internet should be allowed to go in the name of free speech and universal freedoms. But they all seem to agree that those who can do it, have the obligation to, at least, police their own Web sites.
By restricting the types of items that sellers can auction on Yahoo!, the company is putting itself for the first time in self-policing mode. It is doing it at a cost -- because it has to police more than 2 million items now offered on its auction service -- a quantity likely to grow as more people discover the ease of using online auctions.
Plus, it is creating a small barrier for sellers who might want to use Yahoo!, because now sellers will have to reveal details about the items they sell -- something they didn't need to do in the past. Sure there will be some potential sellers who decide not to sell because they must fill out extra forms or because they have to reveal information that they don't want to reveal. I say, let 'em go. If the sellers aren't willing to reveal information that helps the auctioneer safeguard its users and its own business, then they aren't worth having as customers.
One of my callers suggested that any moral stance was purely incidental in Yahoo!'s decision -- that it was strictly business. I say that doesn't matter whether the business or moral case determined the decision. I think it works on both levels.
Q: I often used the calculator in Windows to do basic math. But I can't seem to highlight the answers to copy them into my other applications. Why?
A: Calculator is a bit different than other Windows applets in that you don't need to highlight what you want to cut or copy. You simply need to select copy from the [Edit] menu (or use the ctrl+c keyboard combination). Then paste it into your other application using standard methods. When the numerals are pasted into your application though, they typically will be missing any formatting. So you'll have to add the commas and dollar signs manually. Plus, you'll probably need to apply the correct font, size and characteristics to get the pasted number to look the way you want.
(David Radin is host of the nationally syndicated radio show "Internet Insider," a local version of which is aired on KDKA AM 1020 at noon Saturdays. You can ask him a computer or Internet question by following the instructions at www.post-gazette.com/interact, where you also can find an archive of his previous Q&A columns.)
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