How are tort theories being applied in cyberspace?

A cyber Tort is a tort committed via the internet. Issues that are being defined are those of "publication", authorship or ownership and disclosure of authorship by Internet service providers. Who is the publisher of defamatory statements? Are First Amendment rights involved? Does the dissemination of Spam constitute a "taking of property" from either this ISP or the e-mail recipient. The development of statutory regulation at both state and the Federal level is attempting to deal with this issue.