The rapid increase in Internet usage over the past several decades has led to the development of new and essential areas of legislation and legal study. Jacqueline Lipton takes on the thorny question of how to define the field that has come to be known variously as cyberlaw, cyberspace law or internet law. Unlike much of the existing literature, this book tackles the question with the benefit of hindsight and draws on several decades of legal developments in the United States and abroad that help illustrate the scope of the field. The author argues that cyberlaw might best be considered a law of the 'online intermediary,' and that by focusing on the regulation of online conduct by search engines, online retail outlets, Internet service providers and online social networks, a more cohesive and comprehensive concept of cyberlaw may be developed. Topics covered include current comparative and global strategies, suggestions for future approaches to cyberspace regulation, and the creation of a cohesive and comprehensive framework for the cyberlaw field. Providing an excellent summation of current, past and future cyberlaw, this volume will be extremely valuable to students, scholars, policy makers and legal practitioners with an interest in digital information and technology.

Lipton considers the balance between trademark policy, free speech and other pressing interests in domain names, such as privacy and personality rights and cultural and political interests.