Felix Somm

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Charge:	Pornography (including making and distributing)
Sentence:	"2 year suspended sentence & fined 100,000 marks (US$53,200)"
Years Imprisoned:
Year Crime:
Year Convicted:	1998
Year Cleared:	1999
U.S. State or Country of Crime:	Germany
County or Region of Crime:
City of Crime:
Result:	Judicially Exonerated
Summary of Case:	"Felix Somm was wrongly convicted in May 1998 in Germany of aiding the distribution of pornography. Somm was the former head of CompuServe Germany, and he was convicted based on the prosecution's assertion he criminally failed to prevent pornographic content from being distributed over the Internet through his ISP. Somm was given a two-year suspended sentence and fined 100,000 marks (US$53,200). Somm appealed, arguing that an Internet service provider cannot be held responsible for simply supplying access to a medium over which third parties distributed objectionable content. On November 17, 1999 an appeals court in Munich vacated Somm's conviction, ruling he would not have been able to block the pornographic sites himself and was only in a position to ask CompuServe's US headquarters to do so. Presiding judge Laszlo Ember stated in his ruling, "More could not have been asked of him." After the appeals court's ruling was announced, a CompuServe spokesman said it "restored legal protection for German Internet and online providers" and reflected the technical realities of the Internet. "All technical experts agree that the CompuServe executive had no way of filtering content from the Internet or blocking access.""
Conviction Caused By:
Innocence Proved By:	"On November 17, 1999 an appeals court in Munich vacated Somm's conviction, ruling he would not have been able to block the pornographic sites himself and was only in a position to ask CompuServe's US headquarters to do so."
Defendant Aided By:
Compensation Awarded:
Was Perpetrator Identified?
Age When Imprisoned:
Age When Released:
Sex:	Male
Skin/Ethnicity:	White
Information Source 1:	"Net Porn Conviction Overturned, By Reuters news service, November 17, 1999"
Information Location 1:	http://archive.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/1999/11/32609
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Felix Somm

Charge:

Pornography (including making and distributing)

Sentence:

"2 year suspended sentence & fined 100,000 marks (US$53,200)"

Years Imprisoned:

Year Crime:

Year Convicted:

1998

Year Cleared:

1999

U.S. State or Country of Crime:

Germany

County or Region of Crime:

City of Crime:

Result:

Judicially Exonerated

Summary of Case:

Conviction Caused By:

Innocence Proved By:

"On November 17, 1999 an appeals court in Munich vacated Somm's conviction, ruling he would not have been able to block the pornographic sites himself and was only in a position to ask CompuServe's US headquarters to do so."

Defendant Aided By:

Compensation Awarded:

Was Perpetrator Identified?

Age When Imprisoned:

Age When Released:

Sex:

Male

Skin/Ethnicity:

White

Information Source 1:

"Net Porn Conviction Overturned, By Reuters news service, November 17, 1999"

Information Location 1:

http://archive.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/1999/11/32609

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Book About Case:

Book Information:

Book About Case (2):

Book Information (2):

Movie About Case:

Comments About Case: