Berlin
A COURT in Munich yesterday convicted the former head of CompuServe Germany of helping to distribute pornography by not blocking pictures available on the Internet.
The surprise verdict could stunt multimedia growth in Germany.
The court convicted Felix Somm even though prosecutors had changed their opinion and asked for his acquittal. In closing arguments, they agreed with the defence that it was technically impossible to filter out all such material on the freewheeling global network.
But Judge Wilhelm Hubbert said that contention was ''simply false''.
Reading his decision in court, the judge said CompuServe had let ''protecting the young take second place to maximising profits'', adding that he wanted the verdict to deter other Internet-access providers from doing the same.
The court sentenced Somm to two years' probation and ordered him to pay DM100,000 (#35,000) to charity. Defence attorney Wolfgang Dingfelder called the verdict ''complete rubbish'' and promised an appeal.
Internet experts warned the ruling could hit Germany's multimedia industry, which has been promoted as a source of growth and jobs.
Joerg Tauss, from the opposition Social Democrats, called it ''a catastrophe'' that would ''ruin the Internet in Germany''.
The conviction is the first big victory for a drive to clean up the Internet launched three years ago by the arch-conservative state of Bavaria, centre of Germany's hi-tech industry.
CompuServe, of Columbus, Ohio, at first responded by blocking access to 200 electronic message boards for its then-four million users worldwide. But in February 1996, it reinstated all but five of the boards and introduced software to allow customers to block unwanted material. Bavarian officials called it an attempt to shift responsibility. -AP/Reuters
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