Accountability of Internet access and service providers – strictliability entering ethics?

  • Authors:
  • Anton Vedder

  • Affiliations:
  • Tilburg University, Schoordijk Institute, Faculty of Law, P.O. Box 90153, 5000 LE Tilburg, The Netherlands (Phone: +31 13 466 83 85&semi/ Fax: +31 13 466 80 47&semi/ E-mail: anton.vedde ...

  • Venue:
  • Ethics and Information Technology
  • Year:
  • 2001

Quantified Score

Hi-index 0.00

Visualization

Abstract

Questions regarding the moral responsibility of Internet accessand service providers relating to information on the Internetcall for a reassessment of the ways in which we think aboutattributing blame, guilt, and duties of reparation andcompensation. They invite us to borrow something similar to theidea of strict liability from the legal sphere and to introduceit in morality and ethical theory. Taking such a category in thedistribution of responsibilities outside the domain of law andintroducing it into ethics, however, is a difficult thing. Doingso seems to conflict with some broadly shared and deeply feltintuitions regarding the individuality of responsibility and therelationship between responsibility and guilt. These convictionscoincide with some basic ideas in Kantian moral theory and theascriptive theory based on these ideas. Nevertheless, theproblems to which the proposed liabilities / responsibilitiesrelate are so serious that they do not seem to leave room foraloofness. At least, they encourage us to reconsider the idea ofstrict liability carefully and to assess its merits.