Yahoo! Under Legal Fire for Group

• By theWHIR.com , May 16, 2005

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May 16, 2005 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- A 10 million dollar lawsuit has been filed by the parents of a minor against Internet giant Yahoo! (yahoo.com) and a man who founded a Yahoo! Group for the purposes of trading child pornography.

Filed in US District Court on May 9, the lawsuit claims that Yahoo neglected its responsibilities by providing co-defendant Mark Bates and others with a forum to share and distribute child pornography on a Yahoo! Groups site called "Candyman." The site operated for two months and garnered thousands of visitors before Yahoo! shut it down in February 2001. In 2002, Bates pleaded guilty to establishing the Candyman group site for the trade and distribution of child pornography, according to the Houston Chronicle.

The minor in question - who is using the name Johnny Doe - was featured on the site in pornographic photos taken by a neighbor, said the lawsuit, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters. The plaintiffs have claimed that Yahoo! was aware of the site?s content, and that it still neglected to block or remove the pornographic images of Doe and other children.

An FBI probe, dubbed "Operation Candyman," targeted Yahoo! Groups users who distributed and traded child pornography, and resulted in more than 100 arrests in the United States.

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