ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the law that is encountered when acquiring a presence online, including simple access to the Internet, but concentrating on those acquiring their own web site. It discusses the liabilities that may be encountered once that presence is established, such as if offence is given by the content of e-mail or web pages coming from that domain. Given that a business may have little knowledge of or experience with information and communications technology (ICT), and its software provider may know equally little about its customer's business, a precise and comprehensive division of responsibility will be necessary. The most important heads of liability are those for distributing and viewing pornography and liability for defamatory utterances; though in fact there is a wide swathe of offensive behaviours that may result in liability and which differ in their legal definition across the world's legal systems.
