Copyright Infringement on Internet: Determining the Liability of Internet Service Providers

A "digital revolution" has enveloped the United States and other countries around the world, bringing with it radical changes to modes of communication and potentially drastic alterations to existing legal principles.'In less than twenty years, the number of computers linked to form the Internet grew exponentially from less than 300 in 1981 to current estimates of more than 9.4 million host computers!One commentator stated in 1997 that an estimated total of 21.3 million people are online users in the one hundred countries that have Internet access and the 154 countries that use electronic mail.' 'J.D. Candidate, May 2000, The Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law 1. See William J. Cook, Be Wary of Internet Casting Shadows on Copyright Holders, CHI.LAW., Apr.1996, 60, 60 (quoting Vice President Gore's description of the Internet's enormous and speedy growth as "a revolution-the digital revolution")."Revolution" is defined as "a complete or radical change of any kind" and "revolutionize" means "to make a complete and basic change in; alter drastically or radically."WEBSTER'S NEW WORLD COLLEGE DICTIONARY 1150 (3d ed.1996).2. See Richard S. Vermut, File Caching on the Internet: Technical Infringement or Safeguard for Efficient Network Operation? 4 J. INTELL.PROP.L. 273, 275 (1997) (arguing that the Internet is the form of computer telecommunications that has seen the most growth and development).Host computers, also known as web servers, refer to computers that store and relay information for use on the Internet.See Reno v. ACLU, 521 U.S. 844, 849-50 (1997) (describing the Internet and its swift development and expansion in the United States and internationally) [hereinafter Reno II]; see also Joseph Levi, Will On-Line Service Provider Liability Unravel the Web? in TECHNOLOGY LICENSING AND LITIGATION 1996, at 547, 550 n.1 (PLI Pats., Copyrights, Trademarks, & Literary Prop.Course Handbook Series No. 477, 1997) (noting that information is available on the Internet through hosts using special software designed for Internet servers).The continuous use of certain software that enables the host computer to retrieve and transmit requested web documents from the host's hard drive through an open and permanent connection to the Internet distinguishes web servers from other computers.See Vermut, supra, at 288.One commentator reported in 1995 that the Internet doubled in size each year from 1988 through 1994.See Christopher Anderson, The Accidental Superhighway, THE ECONOMIST, July 1, 1995, at 1 (discussing the unexpected growth and development of the Internet).3. See Vermut, supra note 2, at 275 (noting the pace at which the Internet has been developing since the early 1980s).Electronic mail (e-mail) is correspondence similar to a letter or memorandum sent via the Internet, or within an intra-organization network (an Intranet), between two or more people.See Ian C. Ballon,