In a decision that could expose U.S.-based Web sites to free speech laws of other nations, a federal appeals court on Monday found that Yahoo could not escape legal action in France for violating a French ban on the sale of Nazi-related items.

A divided panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that U.S. courts did not have blanket power to block foreign countries from enforcing their laws against Web sites such as Yahoo, the latest chapter in a case that has tested Internet free speech rights in unsettled global legal terrain.

The case stems from a fight over whether Yahoo could be sanctioned by the French courts for allowing the sale of a host of Nazi items, including copies of Adolf Hitler's ``Mein Kampf'' and materials alleging that the gas chambers of the Holocaust didn't exist.

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Source : Mercury News