Criminal Acts

Possible criminal activities of ISPs include;

 Surveillance activities requested by the State
  
 Intellectual Property violations
 
 Trading Standards violations
 
 Data Protection violations
 
 Obscenity/child pornography issues

Civil Liability

Acts that impute civil liability include;

 Delictual liability generally

 英语论文网 【http://www.51lunwen.org】;Trade secrets violations
 
 Competition law abuses
  
 Consumer protection law abuses
 
 Defamation

 Infringement of privacy/Freedom of Expression

 Data Protection

 Xenophobic/Sexist/Religious etc. crimes

 Intellectual Property law violations

Criminal Liability - prison sentence for managing director (other officials) and/or fine.

Civil Liability - strict liability or fault based system? Negligence. Leads to the imposition of fines, interim interdicts/injunctions, damages and specific implement.

General ISP Issues

 Are Internet Service Providers publishers of material?

 Are they virtual post-companies, simply delivering material?

 Are they hosting information, or are they intermediaries?

ISPs Provide internet access for their customers at reasonable cost. They  may also store data for their customers. ISPs are very similar to the old telecommunication providers such as British Telecom in the sense that they are merely facilitating access to a service. Thus, the ISP is a mere conduit. It is nonsensical for a victim of abusive phone calls to sue BT for allowing someone to phone you and shout obscenities down the phone. Similarly, should you expect to sue ISPs for obscene/illegal material? Nevertheless, the contrary argument is to say that the ISP is in the best position to take down the offend 本文来自：英语论文网 【http://www.51lunwen.org】