Here is an important case to watch for online publishers. A U.S. court gave Yahoo a minor victory Thursday in a filling by human rights groups attempting to apply French law to content hosted on servers in California.

District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel of San Jose ruled that if Yahoo wanted to continue selling items on a site that could be accessed around the world, the company had to assume the risk that it could violate laws of other countries and was subject to more lawsuits. But in August, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Fogel's decision, saying he had no authority to hear the case.

The two-sentence ruling Thursday does not explain how the judges came to their decision but forces both sides to argue their cases again in front of an 11-judge panel, likely this spring.

The new opportunity for a courtroom victory, Yahoo executives said, could benefit all Internet service providers and anyone who publishes content online.

'If American companies have to worry that foreign judgments entered against them might be enforceable, it could end up with companies censoring their Web sites,' said Mary Catherine Wirth, senior corporate council at Yahoo and a professor at University of California Hastings College of The Law.