Secondary Liability of Internet Service Providers

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.

Graeme B. Dinwoodie is the Professor of Intellectual Property and Information Technology Law at the University of Oxford, Director of the Oxford Intellectual Property Research Centre, and a University Professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law. He has previously taught at the National University of Singapore (as the Yong Shook Lin Professor in Intellectual Property Law), New York University University School of Law (as a Global Visiting Professor of Law), the University of Pennsylvania School of Law, and the University of Cincinnati College of Law. Immediately prior to taking up the IP Chair at Oxford, Professor Dinwoodie was for several years a Professor of Law at Chicago-Kent College of Law and, from 2005-2009, also held a Chair in Intellectual Property Law at Queen Mary College, University of London. Professor Dinwoodie holds law degrees from the University of Glasgow, Harvard Law School (where he was a John F. Kennedy Scholar), and Columbia Law School (where he was a Burton Fellow). He is an elected member of the American Law Institute, and served as President of the International Association for the Advancement of Teaching and Research in Intellectual Property from 2011-2013. In 2008, the International Trademark Association awarded Professor Dinwoodie the Pattishall Medal for Teaching Excellence in Trademark Law. He is the author of numerous articles and books on trade mark law and on international and comparative intellectual property law.