المسؤولية المدنية لمشغلي محركات البحث على شبكة الإنترنت : دراسة مقارنة

Abstract EN

Search engines are classified among the most important technical facilities necessary for benefitting from the information and services available on the internet.

without such engines we can not possibly take advantage of the net, particular ly since the are available free to the network users.

as it is the case with all the internet applications and services, such engines may be abused for the commitment of illegal actions that may include, among others, infringement of the author's copyright, infringement on a trade mark and defamation.

this research deals with the civil liability of search engines operators for such actions through illustrating the various legislative trends in connection therewith.

two trends can be identified in this respect; in some countries, such as the U.S.A., special rules have been laid down in relation to this issue which tend most of the time to provide protection to search engine operators against liability if certain conditions have been met, whereas other countries, such as France, have settled for only applying the general rules of liability in this respect.

to deal with the subject in detail this study has been divided into two main parts : • object one : rules of the liability of search engines operators in the coun tries which have adopted special rules.

• object two : rules of the liability of search engines operators in the coun tries which have not adopted special rules.