History

• In 2002, several court cases gave ISPs immunity from most crimes via the Communications Decency Act of 1996 (CDA), according to the law firm of Nixon Peabody.
  
  Internationally, ISPs also tend to receive favorable legal protection, but not the full immunity they receive in the United States. In 1997, for example, Demon Internet lost a defamation case in Britain when a user posted libelous comments on its USENET message board servers.
  
  

Theories/Speculation

• ISPs could become liable for user's actions under the legal theory of "vicarious liability," according to BitLaw. Vicarious liability refers to a person having the means and authority to stop a crime, but not doing so, even without knowledge of the crime. The ISP, however, would need to benefit from these actions.
  
  

Considerations

• ISPs are most liable when they have a direct connection to a crime or civil infraction. An ISP, for example, cannot blatantly post copyrighted material on its website or make outright lies. When America Online switched to flat-rate billing in the mid-1990s, users sued when the AOL server could not keep up with demand--something users claimed AOL knew would happen.