Advantage ISP: Terms of Service as Media Law
- 1 September 2003
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications in New Media & Society
- Vol. 5 (3) , 422-448
- https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448030053007
Abstract
All users must access the internet through ISPs on the basis of contracts known as `terms of service' or `acceptable use policies' that are becoming de facto law for internet communications. This article examines contracts fr om over two dozen ISPs. Findings include a knowledge differ ential between users and ISPs regarding rules and their applications. User s have liability irrespective of intention, while ISPs do not. User s must license content to ISPs. And ISP agreements disregard constitutional standar ds regarding freedom of expr ession and privacy. Public forum analysis provides a legal foundation for seeking ter ms of service more protective of constitutionally-based civil liberties and intellectual property rights.Keywords
This publication has 19 references indexed in Scilit:
- Internet Points of ControlSSRN Electronic Journal, 2003
- Acceptable internet use policyCommunications of the ACM, 2002
- Rethinking the design of the InternetACM Transactions on Internet Technology, 2001
- Advances in Routing Technologies and Internet Peering AgreementsAmerican Economic Review, 2001
- Building and Delivering the Virtual World: Commercializing Services for Internet AccessJournal of Industrial Economics, 2000
- Legally speaking: libel and slander on the InternetCommunications of the ACM, 2000
- Implementing Information Security In The 21st Century — Do You Have the Balancing Factors?Computers & Security, 2000
- www. ethics. gov: Issues and Challenges Facing Public ManagersPublic Administration Review, 1998
- Law and Borders: The Rise of Law in CyberspaceStanford Law Review, 1996
- The Big Bang and the Law: The Internationalization and Restructuration of the Legal FieldTheory, Culture & Society, 1990