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Quote: Irish libel laws are notoriously restrictive and defamation juries incredibly generous. But it is only newspapers and broadcasters who have dug deep in their pockets so far.

Now the liability of ISPs, website moderators and bloggers is set to be defined. In America, it is very difficult to sue for online libel. The courts there have generally held that the ISP is not responsible for inaccurate, defamatory information e-mailed through their networks. The ISPs are thus treated like telephone lines - connecting the callers, just not making the calls or joining in the chats.

Irish lawyers will instead be looking toward developments in Britain. Under current British law, ISPs cannot be held accountable for illegal material they host until they are made aware of its presence, when they must take it down...