Conclusion

SERVICE PROVIDER LIABILITY

Conclusion

The purpose of this site was to give an overview of the potential liabilities that Internet Service Providers, Online Service Providers, or other providers of internet services might face. We explored Service Provider liability as derived from the actionable conduct of its users.

The two primary areas of liability that service providers have been held liable for are intellectual property and defamation. Liability will in either scenario tends to hinge on whether the court regards the conduct of the service provider to be analogous to that of a publisher or a distributor (book seller, library, printer). In making the determination, courts have taken the following factors (among others) into consideration: whether the service provider holds itself out as having editorial control over the content of its service; whether the service provider actually exercises control over content; whether the service provider has implemented policies and procedures to control content; whether the service provider employs or contracts with people to monitor forums and postings; and whether the service provider uses technology to control user access or content. If a service provider is deemed to be analogous to a publisher, the standard of liability to which it is held is higher than if it is deemed to be a mere distributor (i.e., the "publisher service provider" is generally presumed to have had knowledge of the actionable conduct as if it had committed the underlying actionable conduct, whereas with the"distributor service provider" it must be shown that the provider either knew or had reason to know of the actionable conduct).

Service Provider Liability Pages

Introduction • Table of Contents
Servcie Providers - Overview • Service Providers - Discussion • Liability Analogies - Overview • Liability Analogies - Discussion • Defamation - Overview • Defamation - Discussion • Intellectual Property - Overview • Intellectual Property - Discussion • Obscenity - Overview • Obscenity - Discussion • Criminal - Overview • Criminal Discussion • Privacy - Overview • Privacy - Discussion • Policy Discussion • Conclusion • Pocket Part • Notes & Links

Prepared for Professor Laura Gasaway's Cyberspace Law Seminar (Law - 357C)
UNC School of Law - Spring 1997

By: Ashe Lockhart (Webmaster) & Carol Kozar

Instructor: Laura N. Gasaway, Professor of Law and Director of the Katherine R. Everett Law Library