From a practical point of view, the ISP has deep pockets so they become an attractive defender/defendant. The argument runs that it is more financially advantageous to sue the large corporation than the small individual.

There are problems with both extremes. Without any regulation, the Internet becomes a lawless place full of inappropriate/illegal material. If you regulate too much, you destroy the liberalist tendencies of the Internet and the State is seen as a paternalistic/nanny State.

Self-regulation must be tempered by the adoption of some State controls.

Delict

The Scots law of delict stems from the Roman law of obligations. Delict refers to non-contractual obligations and is classified as a civil wrong. The main principle of delictual liability is to provide compensation to place the person in the position they were in before the harmful event took place. English and American law refers to the law of tort.

The essentials of any delictual claim rest upon the following three concepts:

 Damnum
  
 Injuria
 
 Datum

Damnum refers to the loss/injury of the pursuer/plaintiff/claimant. This includes physical injury, nervous shock, distress, damage to reputation, loss of earni英语论文网 【http://www.51lunwen.org】ngs/other economic loss. The injuria element refers to the conduct of the defender (legal wrong) and most commonly involves a breach of a legal duty of care. Datum refers to the establishment of a causal link between the damnum and injuria. The pursuer has to prove the link between the defender’s actions and the damage sustained by the pursuer and can be very difficult to establish.

In the English case of R v. Poplar Coroner 1993 2 All ER 381 for example a computer system failed. As a result, the ambulance arrived late and a person died. It was not an unnatural death due to computer misuse - asthma was the cause of death.

The Law of negligence

The law of negligence is extremely complex and displays various manifestations. For example, you could have a number of complaints concerning computer applications:

 Negligence in designing the computer system

 Negligence in operating the system

 Negligence in relying on the output of the system

 Negligence in not using a computerised system

Pure financial loss is difficult to recover. The leading case on negligent misstatement is Hedley Byrne v. Heller.  A bank reference was relied upon by an advertising agency to contract with a company. The company went into liquidation and the agency wanted to recover losses. The bank would have been liable but for the fact of an exclusion clause.  If the claim is purely financial, a question arises o 本文来自：英语论文网 【http://www.51lunwen.org】