Internet intermediaries play a central role in modern commerce and society. Although their economic and social importance is well-recognised, their legal liability remains poorly understood, and, until now, no work has specifically addressed their legal responsibility for wrongdoing carried out by third parties using their facilities or platforms. This work fills that gap by providing comprehensive coverage of the legal duties owed by intermediaries and the increasingly complex schemes that regulate their activities. The first part of the work introduces the concept of an internet intermediary, general doctrines of primary and secondary liability, and the European enforcement regime. The second part examines the liability of intermediaries in specific areas of law, with a detailed analysis of the applicable liability rules, and the major English case law, and decisions of the Court of Justice that interpret and apply them. The final part of the work provides guidance on remedies and limitations. Written by an expert author from the intellectual property chambers at 8 New Square, Lincoln's Inn, this is an essential guide for lawyers advising on liability, privacy, and online regulation.

In step with its rapid progress to the centre of modern social, political, and economic life, the internet has proven a convenient vehicle for the commission of unprecedented levels of copyright infringement. Given the virtually insurmountable obstacles to successful pursuit of actual perpetrators, it has become common for intermediaries –providers of internet-related infrastructure and services – to face liability as accessories. Despite advances in policy at the European level, the law in this area remains far from consistently applicable. This is the first book to locate and clarify the substantive rules of European intermediary accessory liability in copyright and to formulate harmonised European norms to govern this complicated topic. With a detailed comparative analysis of relevant regimes in three major Member State jurisdictions – England, France, and Germany – the author elucidates the relationship between these rules and the demands of EU law on fundamental rights and the principles of European tort law. She clearly presents the interrelations between such areas as the following: - accessory liability in tort; - joint tortfeasance; - European fault-based liability: fault, causation, defences; - negligence; - negligence balancing: rights-based or utility-based?; - Germany’s “disturbance liability” (Störerhaftung); - fair balance in human rights; - end-users’ fundamental rights; - The European Commission’s 2015 Communication on a Digital Single Market Strategy for Europe; - The E-Commerce Directive and other relevant provisions; - Safe harbours: mere conduit, caching, hosting; - Intermediary actions: monitoring, filtering, blocking, removal of infringing content; and - application of remedies: damages and injunctions. The strong points of each national system are highlighted, as are the commonalities between them, and the author uses these to build a proposed harmonised European framework for intermediary liability for copyright infringement. She concludes with suggestions for the future possible integration of the proposed framework into EU law. The issue of the liability of internet intermediaries for third party copyright infringement has entered into the political agenda across the globe, giving rise to one of the most complex, contentious, and fascinating debates in modern copyright law. This book offers an opportunity for a re-conceptualisation and rationalisation of the applicable law, in a way which additionally better accounts for the cross-border nature of the internet. It will be of inestimable value to many interested parties – lawyers, internet intermediaries, NGOs, policymakers, universities, libraries, researchers, lobbyists – in matters regarding the information society.

All forms of online communications and interactions between people and companies on the Internet are facilitated by intermediaries – service providers whose decisions and policies have a shaping effect on the Internet, its users and the information shared on it. Today, because such intermediaries employ technologies that go well beyond the mere transmission and storage of information into new realms potentially disrupting existing business models, a rethinking of existing relevant law is called for. The legal analysis and recommendations in this book put the topic of intermediary liability in the perspective of copyright law and offer a vision on how to regulate that liability. In the context of in-depth and up-to-date analyses on EU, US, German and Dutch law, the author discusses such issues and topics as the following: the liability rules in the new Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market; liability for the intermediary’s own copyright infringements (primary liability); the intermediary’s responsibility to stop or prevent the infringements of others (secondary liability); the role that fundamental rights play in copyright law and intermediary liability; the rights and interests of copyright owners, intermediaries and users, and how they are protected; notice-and-takedown by service providers; website blocking by Internet access providers; the publisher’s rights and the use of online articles by platforms; legal status of hyperlinks under copyright law; and search engine use of copyrighted materials. A focus on the strengths and weaknesses of existing EU copyright law concerning Internet intermediaries in terms of how future-proof that law is, includes detailed attention to legislation, regulation and case law. With its deeply informed guidance with respect to the methods of regulation in a domain that is heavily influenced by technological developments, this book will be welcomed by policymakers, legislators, academics, judges and practitioners working in the area of copyright law as applied to the Internet. The detailed attention to the extent to which an intermediary can be held liable for copyright infringements in both the EU and the US will prove highly beneficial for in-house counsellors and advisors working for rights holder organizations and intermediary service providers.

This book provides a comprehensive, authoritative, and state-of-the-art discussion of fundamental legal issues in intermediary liability online, while also describing advancement in intermediary liability theory and identifying recent policy trends.

This book analyses the doctrinal structure and content of secondary liability rules that hold internet service providers liable for the conduct of others, including the safe harbours (or immunities) of which they may take advantage, and the range of remedies that can be secured against such providers. Many such claims involve intellectual property infringement, but the treatment extends beyond that field of law. Because there are few formal international standards which govern the question of secondary liability, comprehension of the international landscape requires treatment of a broad range of national approaches. This book thus canvasses numerous jurisdictions across several continents, but presents these comparative studies thematically to highlight evolving commonalities and trans-border commercial practices that exist despite the lack of hard international law. The analysis presented in this book allows exploration not only of contemporary debates about the appropriate policy levers through which to regulate intermediaries, but also about the conceptual character of secondary liability rules.

This book presents a comprehensive view of Internet intermediaries, their economic and social function, development and prospects, benefits and costs, and roles and responsibilities.

In this study, Professor Seng seeks to identify the possible commonalities among different liability doctrines. The study is divided into two parts, the first consisting of a “Survey of National Legislation and Jurisprudence on the Liability of Internet Intermediaries in the Field of Copyright and Related Rights”, covering 30 jurisdictions.