Liability for Copyright Infringement. Handling Innocence in a Strict-Liability Context

Copyright Conundrum Liability of ISPs for Online Copyright Infringement

As digital rights holders become increasingly proactive in asserting their rights against infringers, Internet service providers (“ISPs”) are more frequently becoming embroiled in online copyright infringement disputes. ISPs have, in turn, become increasingly concerned about their potential exposure to liability for acts of copyright infringement committed by their subscribers using the ISPs' f...

Vicarious liability for infringement

When is it proper to hold one person liable for the harm caused by the acts of another person? How should courts decide that? Let’s consider that in the context of manufacturers and disseminators of innovative products such as player-piano rolls, copiers, videocassette recorders (VCRs), TiVo, and Grokster. Each of these technological advances has challenged copyright law. Courts had to decide, ...

The Case Against Strict Liability

U.s. Infringement Liability for Foreign Sellers of Infringing Products

IMPORTATION AS AN EXCLUSIVE RIGHT ¶1 Making, selling, or using a U.S.-patented product or process in a foreign country does not infringe the United States patent. United States law cannot govern in other countries, and the patentee’s remedy is therefore dependent on the laws of the relevant foreign country. But when the patented product (or the product of the patented process) is brought into t...

Strict Liability versus Negligence in Indiana Harbor

In January of 1979, a railroad tank car containing the chemical acrylonitrile started leaking at a rail yard in south suburban Chicago. The chemical was manufactured by American Cyanamid Co (Cyanamid) in Louisiana. Cyanamid had leased the tank car, filled it with acrylonitrile, and delivered it to the Missouri Pacific Railroad for transport to the Chicago suburbs. The leak occurred while the ca...