ABSTRACT
Cyberspace has four characteristics which assume importance when the problem of its regulation is considered. It is virtual space, a place for interaction, and it is characterized by the sovereignty of the user and by competing regulations. In cyberspace as elsewhere, the person who physically performs the tortious harmful act is, of course, the first to incur liability for it. Some of the persons involved in cyberspace assume the role of mere carriers of information. The analogy with common carriers throws light on the conditions of liability of the administrator of an electronic mail server acting solely in that capacity. Editorial discretion, mainly exercised by a publisher or broadcaster in the traditional environments, takes the form of discretionary editorial choices – the selection of the information to be published. Knowledge of the harmful nature of a piece of information is closely related to a number of the factors on which liability is based.
