With the internet becoming a vital part of our day-to-day life and the enormous opportunities that it creates, its use and abuse also bring new challenges every day. The development of the internet not only enables access to quality information and data in seconds but also leads to economic issues due to mammoth intellectual property infringements. The authors in this work focus on the burgeoning intermediary liability for copyright infringement in the USA, and European Union with a brief discussion on laws in BRICS countries and Japan. Subsequently, the authors make a clear contrast in the approach of the judiciary to deal with such issues in India. Advocating a balanced mechanism to deal with copyright infringement on the internet, the authors suggest a harmonised international framework like the 'notice and take down'/'safe harbour' mechanism to limit the liability based on intermediaries' knowledge/awareness of the unauthorised communication and reproduction