Simple...Yahoo would get sued left and right. However since it is saying that these sources are unreliable...although this may be a bit of a far shot and I am not intending on bashing on anyone else....but aren't some of these people our enemies? War wise? I mean we did go to war with them in the 80's however our troops are over there getting ready to invade Afghan...Why would Yahoo sell such a thing to our supposed enemies...and if I remember correctly Iran has nuclear plants? Is Yahoo trading usernames for nuke locations? Tough question, and an even tougher answer to properly articulate....but I took a stab at it :)
Permalink | Report

Yahoo would be sued 20 ways till next Christmas. Their credibility and popularity would fall, as well as their stock prices. In turn this would make Yahoo easy pickings for a big company like Microsoft or Google to engulf them and begin the damage-control process.

(Love the new avatar jeff.)
Permalink | Report

Hmm... it depends uopn whether or not the bloggers are physically located in Iran.

If the bloggers are in Iran, then Iran can, but their own laws, make a legitimate threat to block all Yahoo traffic in and out of Iran if Yahoo does not comply, and all Yahoo can do is ask the Iranians to provide sufficient evidence for Yahoo to be sure that the bloggers are indeed physically located in Iran.

That can get interesting, because what Iran's basically saying is that they *know* a wanted person is in their country using the internet and Yahoo, but they don't know *who* it is, therefore, give them a name, and Yahoo, quite legitimatly, *has* to say that they can't release names unless Iran can provide sufficient technical evidense that the anonymous bloggers are indeed physically in Iran, because it would be a violtion of so many national and international laws to de-anonymize a non-Iranian that it's basically asking to be wiped out in a tactical strike like how Israel would do it. or wiped out by commandos with C4 like how France would do it or, or have all assets siezed with an audit by the IRS like Americans would do it...

That makes it a bit of a game of chicken with Iran, because Iran may not want it known to what extent they are capable of snooping on internet traffic crossing their border, versus how bad does Yahoo want to keep Iranians as users of their service.

But basically... if Iran *can* proove that the anonymous bloggers are on Iranian soil, then, like it or not, it's within their right to demand details from Yahoo or face being blocked, and there's nothing by international law that Yahoo can do about it other than decide to let Iran go as a zone, and Yahoo might just want to choose to do that, because if they de-anonymize some Iranians, then Yahoo users from other jurisdictions like Pakistan might flee from Yahoo, such could be the reaction of the internet community, but...

...given how the NSA works, it's probable that that agency likes there being entities such as Yahoo doing international information exchange with a reach into Iran, so don't be suprized if Yahoo were to get a visit from the MIBs, and chooses to release the names in exchange for the Iranian government allowing them ongoing access to the Iranian internet.

And don't forget... Yahoo's de-anonymized some users already... from China... where the option was give Bejing the names or face exclusion from the Chinese national internet.

People howled, but it didn't kill Yahoo the way some had predicted, once the issues were understood.
Permalink | Report

I don't think much would happen if it turned out to be true. This isn't the first time. Has everyone already forgotten about Shi Tao? He has been jailed for 10 years in China and Yahoo is still in business.
Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shi_Tao

Permalink | Report

In my opinion, the "internet community" will write a couple of "scathing" blogs and consider that they should now be named person of the year or be awarded the Nobel Prize. The internet community, by and large, is over-populated with people who are VERY impressed with themselves and with pretty words. They are long on talking and woefully short on actions. There is a serious and widespread inability to discern real world actions and accomplishments from the latest cyber coup, in which they declare themselves "winners". Perhaps I am chiefest among them.
Permalink | Report

Not at all happy to say the least.
I can see many subscribers changing over to gmail if this happened.
Politics will become a larger and larger part of the internet experience.
Permalink | Report

I think people would be disgusted, but would do nothing about it, as most people today are all talk and no action :(
Permalink | Report

Yahoo will lose and Google will won!

people are so fast dealing with internet issues these days, and it's so easy to create 100s of account everywhere and publish all what's in your mind no matter what Yahoo will do, but the real loser will be Yahoo people if they think to do that!
Source(s):
Just a simple opinion from a guy knows how people think in the Middle east!

Permalink | Report