Yahoo! Will Allow Nazi Stamps, Coins

Friday, January 12th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

NEW YORK (AP) â€” Internet powerhouse Yahoo! Inc. has removed thousands of hate items from its online auctions, but will continue to permit sales of Nazi coins and stamps issued by Germany.

Brian Fitzgerald, Yahoo's senior auction producer, said computer software and Yahoo staff caught most of the items prohibited under a new ban. The procedures, he said, will be tweaked in the coming weeks and months.

``We always knew it's not going to be 100 percent foolproof,'' Fitzgerald said Thursday.

Ygal El Harrar, president of the Union of Jewish Students of France, estimated that the number of Nazi items dropped to 400 from 1,900 when the ban took effect at 3:01 a.m. Eastern on Wednesday.

Most of the Nazi items that remain are stamps, coins and bank notes issued before and during World War II. Because they were issued by the government, Fitzgerald said, they are permitted.

Yahoo also left alone sales of Adolf Hitler's ``Mein Kampf'' as an educational resource. Three copies were on sale as of midday Thursday.

A search for KKK turned up 15 items, down from 40 on Tuesday. The remaining items were generally books, videotapes and other references that mention the Ku Klux Klan.

The new ban covers items associated with promoting or glorifying Nazis, the Klan and other hate groups. It took effect as Yahoo also began imposing fees to list items for sale.

Yahoo officials insist the ban had nothing to do with a November court ruling from Paris requiring Yahoo to block French users from such auctions.

The company, based in Santa Clara, Calif., plans to continue challenging that ruling and has asked a federal judge in California to declare that France has no jurisdiction over content produced by an American business.

Nazi materials are banned in France and at least three other European countries. The Union of Jewish Students of France and the International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism, or LICRA, filed the lawsuits in France.

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http://auctions.yahoo.com