EC condemns conviction of Compuserve chief in porn trial

The European Commission is "astonished" by the two-year suspended jail sentence given to a former Compuserve Germany chief, for distributing pornographic material on the Internet.

A court in Munich yesterday found Felix Somm guilty of disseminating the material, even though it was not provided directly by Compuserve but by an access provider using Compuserve's network.

"It is astonishing, this ruling in Germany," said an EC spokesperson. "In the court there was no evidence he knew the content was there. The public attorney pleaded for his acquittal not just his defence. In some cases, Compuserve provides content and in other areas, as in this case, it was access providers. They can't control their client. If it was their own content then they would be responsible."

"As far as we know in Germany, if you are informed by the public authorities you have to do something and if you do not you are responsible. In this case no-one said they knew," he continued.

This case was decided by a lower court in Bavaria and the Commission hopes a more balanced decision will be reached on appeal.

The EC wants international principles established to make it clear who is responsible for pornographic material on the Internet, but without setting rules on the content itself, the spokesperson said.

These rules would deal with who is responsible for putting the material on the Internet as well as variations between different countries.

The EC is preparing EU-wide rules on liability for Internet breaches but this will cover civil law issues, such as copyright, not those where the criminal law is involved.