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Commentary Proposes Ways to Regulate Internet Related Activity

The Promise of Internet Intermediary Liability, by Ronald J. Mann and Seth R. Belzley, William and Mary Law Review, Vol. 47, October 2005.

  • “This Essay starts from the realist assumption that government regulation of the internet is inevitable. Thus, instead of focusing on the naïve question of whether the internet should be regulated, it discusses how to regulate internet-related activity in a way that is consistent with approaches to analogous offline conduct. The Essay also assumes that the most salient characteristic of the internet is that it inserts intermediaries into relationships that could be, and previously would have been, conducted directly in an offline environment. Existing liability schemes generally join traditional fault-based liability rules to broad internet-specific liability exemptions. Those exemptions are supported by the premise that in many cases the conduct of the intermediaries is so wholly passive as to make liability inappropriate.”
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