Accountability - a) on an intuitive basis, it is a notion akin to "answerability" - a social obligation to own up to one's actions that affect others. b) drawing on philosophical and legal inquiry into moral responsibility, it is a notion of professional moral responsibility that is based on the key conditions of fault and causation. (Nissembaum, p.3)

Causation - a condition by which a person is held morally blameworthy for a harm if "his or her actions caused the harm, or constituted a significant causal factor in bringing about the harm." (Nissenbaum, p.3)

Fault - a condition by which a person is held morally blameworthy for a harm if his or her actions were guided by faulty decisions or intentions. (Nissenbaum, p. 3-4)

Information Products - information bearing objects that are mass-produced and distributed to meet general needs, e.g. database of facts, various syntheses of information for general distribution. Subject to negligence and product liability. (Sutton's Module 3 lecture)

Information Services - information services that are provided to meet a particular individual or organizational need, entail a professional-client relationship, and provide a selection of information bearing objects that might contain an answer. Subject to negligence but not strict liability. (Sutton's Module 3 lecture)

Negligence - a kind of liability that applies both to information services and information products. To be liable for negligence, a set of components must be present - a duty of care, a breach of that duty of care, damage to the client owed a duty of care, a causal link between the action of the person owing a duty of care and the harm done to the person owed a duty of care. (Sutton's Module 3 lecture)

Professional Duty of Care - the level of care that the law requires when dealing with a vulnerable client. (Sutton's Module 2 lecture) It is what a reasonable,ordinary, prudent professional with average mental ability and a member of a profession in good standing would have done under the same or similar circumstances. It is the basic component for negligence. (Sutton's Module 3 lecture)

Strict (Product) Liability - a modern doctrine of liability that came with the age of mass-produced and mass-distributed products (including information products) and developed as a form of social insurance and as a matter of public policy. This kind of liability requires no proof of fault or wrongdoing on the part of the manufacturer. (Sutton's Module 3 lecture)