In today’s “Online” from the British Guardian, Bobbie Johnson muses on the potential effect of a recent decision by a U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals judge that overturns a lower court’s ruling that Yahoo! is exempt from fines a French court imposed in 2000 for displaying Nazi items. The ruling questions the free speech rights of other U.S. companies that allow international access to their Web site. Read a recap of Yahoo vs. the French courts at Searchengineguide.

Johnson asks: “Who governs the internet, and what laws should it conform to? After all, few suggest that China’s draconian internet regulation is anything but anti-democratic censorship - but seen in terms of the Yahoo decision, is the Chinese restriction of “free speech” so different from the French?”

The problem stems from the fact that with a direct URL anyone can link to any website anywhere in the world. Online gambling was banned in the U.S. No problem, the cyber casinos operate from Caribbean islands, and you can log on and lose just as easily as if they were located in Louisiana. On the other hand, the U.S. courts are (currently) allowing pornographic material produced online in their own country.

I’m not so sure this is a “who rules the ‘net” problem so much as it is a consistency problem within the U.S. legal system. What do you think?

You can talk back to Georganna at Writer’s Edge.