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Following the example of successful U.S. sites, French entrepreneurs created Note2be.com in January that encouraged students to grade teachers and discuss their ability.
Unions, backed by the education ministry, immediately took the site to court, saying the personal comments represented a breach of privacy and an "incitement to public disorder."
The judges backed their case and said the Web site could no longer identify any teachers by name and told the site's owners they faced a $1,517 (1,000 euro) fine for every infraction.
It also told them to pay a symbolic 1 euro fine and legal fees for some 30 teachers who had taken part in the court case.
"This is an astonishing and surprising decision that has worrying implications for the development of the Web," said Stephane Cola, who co-founded the site.
"The ranking and evaluation of professionals on the Web is a fundamental principle and a primary motor of the Internet around the world," he told reporters after the verdict.
However, unions hailed the outcome.
"We are totally satisfied by this ruling," said Francis Berguin, the head of the SNES teachers' union. "It is not up to pupils to mark their own teachers and certainly not on a commercial Web site," he told LCI news channel.
Note2be.com asked pupils to rate their teachers according to six categories--how interesting, clear, fair, available, respectful and motivated they were. It also set up a rankings system to promote France's top 10 teachers.
Education Minister Xavier Darcos praised the court verdict, saying in a statement that he "totally supported teachers whose difficult mission will not be the object of anonymous attacks on the Internet."
Story Copyright © 2008 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
- Having visted France
- During a visit to France I saw many occasions of people yelling and hitting one another during the most mundane of discussions - all in PUBLIC. For example, couple arguing over sugar in coffee in a cafe. So I can see how allowing any sort of discussion is incitement to public disorder. Best to keep any sort of criticism under raps, that's the French way. Just have a revolution every so many years...
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- Really stupid decision
- I wonder if the French Better Business Bureau is similarly hamstrung. Can biz-rate.com do business in France? Will Michelin need to stop giving out stars to French restaurants? After all comparing them would be bad, right?
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- crazy
- This decision goes directly against every principle upon which free society rests. If there is any group of people that should be most open to public scrutiny, it should be the group that has the greatest influence on the beliefs of the next generation.
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- Excellent decision as EVIDENT by how little US Dollar is vs Euro
- To those who think this decision by French court is wrong, just take a look at how worthless US Dollar has become vs Euro, which indicates that European economies/nations are doing vastly better than US economy/nation and thus realize that European model is so much better than the US model and that very likely this decision by the French court is YET one more right decision by Europeans compared to the Stupid way things are done here in US which has resulted in US economy to be in near total collapse compared to European economies as evident by US Dollar than has fallen an amazing 50%, and going lower, vs Euro.
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