ISPs plan to sidestep libel responsibility

Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and legal experts have joined forces to find ways of ensuring ISPs cannot be sued in copyright and defamation cases.

The high profile prosecutions of AOL in Germany and Yahoo! in France, as well as the Godfrey versus Demon Internet case in the UK, have raised the issue of whether ISPs should be liable for the content held on their servers. ISPs argue that it is impractical for them to be treated as publishers of information.

There may also be implications for ISPs if Napster is found guilty of copyright infringement later this year in its court case against the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

At the meeting - attended by the London Internet Exchange (Linx), legal experts and the Computer Crime Working Group - Linx presented a best practice framework for industry self-regulation, which has been developed over the last year.

If accepted, the Linx framework could end up influencing worldwide internet governance.

Roland Perry, regulation officer at Linx, said: "It is unfair for individual ISPs to have to arbitrate every dispute over copyright and defamation, which is what currently happens. It's the job of the judge and the jury to arbitrate that."

Another option, Parry added, was to create an industry body or a small claims court for defamation where an individual can apply for an injunction.

Richard Francis, a lawyer at Manches and chairman of the Internet Society for Legal and Regulatory Special Interest Group, welcomed the move. "As a lawyer I had been unaware of how many calls ISPs take about cyber abuse - they have dedicated hotlines."

He added that the forum will help provide a "clear route map that all parties must follow to drive forward industry self-regulation which can then be used in later UN trade law and G8 summits".