A responsabilidade civil pelos conteúdos ilícitos colocados e difundidos na Internet - em especial da responsabilidade pelos conteúdos gerados por utilizadores

Abstract

The objective of this dissertation is the application of the civil liability traditional dogmatic system to the present Internet space, in order to appraise the way that the civil liability approach can be used to act upon unlawful contents uploaded and disseminated in the network, mainly when these are generated by the actual users of Internet-based services. In a first stage we will focus on key questions concerning civil liability of the user that uploads or disseminates unlawful contents in the network, in particular regarding the fulfillment of the five requirements of civil liability, as well as other issues as the hypothesis of the relevance of guilt of the offended part in Internet context, as well as the problem drawn by anonymity in the network. In a second moment we will explore civil liability concerning intermediary services providers whose activities are capable of distributing unlawful contents in the network. In particular, we will study the Portuguese legal system concerning this issue without overlooking a comparative law analysis, mainly related to the uniform European legal system and the North American legal system. Ultimately, we aim to investigate if, under the paradigm of web 2.0, the current system keeps its original strength, when facing the new tendencies that are emerging in several law orders. We conclude for the maintenance of the core of the regime of exemption of liability for intermediary service providers notwithstanding, at least, that the new web 2.0 reality will require an inversion of the burden of proof of liability exemption.