Internet Service Providers and its Role of Hosting User Generated Content under the United Kingdom and European Union Regime

Abstract

It cannot be argued that the most vital steering force of the development of the Internet is the existence of the Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Essentially, the ISP’s crucial task is to provide access, however, the nature of the Internet has rendered these ISPs to act beyond providing a mere ‘access’ and extend their services onto other spheres, which include both commercial and non-commercial aspects. Accordingly it is not surprising to find that many ISPs also play the role of host for much of the content online. That is to say, content creators can make their materials available online by telling the ISPs to store a copy of any material they upload to web pages. Therefore, as the host of these contents, the ISPs no longer merely providing general access to the Internet but also hosting and allowing these contents to be accessible by their subscribers. In fact, many large ISPs also offer their own additional content services and, as a result, this event has led to a much disputed discussion concerning the role of the ISP’s that has become overlapped between being an access provider and the content provider. The essay will accordingly examined and discuss the complications of the content provider role the ISPs play in nowadays digital society.