Two men have started appeals against the UK's first convictions for inciting racial hatred via a foreign website.
Simon Sheppard, 51, was sentenced to four years and 10 months, and Stephen Whittle, 42, to two years and four months at Leeds Crown Court in July.
Sheppard, from Selby, North Yorks, and Whittle, of Preston, Lancs, controlled US websites featuring racist material.
Sheppard's counsel Adrian Davies told the Appeal Court on Thursday the sites were "entirely lawful" in the US.
He said that there was no evidence that anyone in England and Wales - except for the police officer in the case - had ever seen any of them.
Referring to the jailed UK extremist Muslim cleric Mr Davies said: "Despite this, Mr Sheppard has been sentenced to a longer term of imprisonment than Abu Hamza," he told the court.
"These are matters which, in my submission, ought to attract the closest and most careful scrutiny of the court of the supposed legal basis of these convictions."
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