A court in Munich has overturned the 1998 conviction of Felix Somm, former head of CompuServe, for complicity in 13 cases of distributing child pornography. The conviction was widely criticized, because Somm’s offense amounted to not blocking CompuServe access to the offending sites. Even Somm’s prosecutors agreed that the technology to do so was not available at the time of his alleged offence. Nevertheless, Judge Wilhelm Hubbert said he wanted to deter other internet access providers, and Somm was given a two-year suspended sentence and a $52,670 fine. Defense attorney Ulrich Sieber opened Somm’s successful appeal by observing that: You could just as well convict the chair of Deutsche Telekom.
