Indirect liability refers to

legal liability In law, liable means "responsible or answerable in law; legally obligated". Legal liability concerns both civil law and criminal law and can arise from various areas of law, such as contracts, torts, taxes, or fines given by government agenci ...

imposed on an entity which is facilitating an infringement of another's rights, particularly of

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...

rights, but not accruing benefit (or loss) from the infringement. Indirect liability can be imposed on the facilitator if it is

economically efficient In microeconomics, economic efficiency, depending on the context, is usually one of the following two related concepts: * Allocative or Pareto efficiency: any changes made to assist one person would harm another. * Productive efficiency: no addit ...

. One reason it can be efficient is that a facilitator might be in best position to stop the infringement. This is relevant and often talked about in context of content holders vs

ISPs An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise private ...

or other media manufacturers

lawsuits - A lawsuit is a proceeding by a party or parties against another in the civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. The term "lawsuit" is used in reference to a civil acti ...

.Landes, William and Douglas Lichtman, "Indirect Liability for Copyright Infringement: Napster and Beyond," The Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 17, No. 2 (Spring, 2003), pp. 113-124.

References

Legal terminology Public liability {{law-term-stub