Law Commons^™

The Best Available Technology Standard, Lital Helman, Gideon Parchomovsky

All Faculty Scholarship

Copyright liability for web-hosting will be a key determinant of the evolution of the Internet in years to come. Depending on their design, the legal rules that shape the liability of web-hosts can stunt the development of the Internet as a medium of expression or enhance it. Hence, adopting the optimal liability regime is a matter of crucial importance. This Article proposes a radical change in web-hosts’ copyright liability for illegal content posted by users. Our main thesis is that web-hosts’ liability should be guided by the “Best Available Technology” principle, according to which web-hosts that employ the best filtering …