Holding the Internet Service Provider Accountable英文版本.pdfVIP

T E L E C O M M U N I C A T I O N S T E C H N O L O G Y Would indirect liability reduce costly cyberspace externalities? Holding Internet Service Providers Accountable BY DOUGLAS LICHTMAN University of Chicago nternet service providers (isps) are largely accused subscriber that piracy is illegal and that “the com- immune from legal liability for the various forms of plaining copyright holder might take his evidence to court, online malfeasance to which they contribute. Amer- where we will be forced to reveal your identity and provide ica Online, for example, paid Matt Drudge $3,000 further evidence of your alleged bad acts.” Imagine the shiv- a month to write an online gossip column; but er that would go down an infringer’s spine upon finding that when Drudge used the column to accuse Clinton note in his mailbox, complete with a specific accusation that I appointee Sidney Blumenthal of spousal abuse, a fed- he downloaded Madonna last Tuesday at midnight from his eral judge ruled that aol bore no responsibility for the smear. bedroom computer. Similarly, Verizon Communications today counts among its The copyright and defamation immunities to which I subscribers an untold number of peer-to-peer pirates, yet the allude have been in place for years and would be difficult to firm faces no financial liability for copyright infringement displace. I therefore want to focus instead on what is shap- online and, i